


Judgement Over Gotham

by Jasontodd908



Series: A Saga of Earth 91192 [2]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Adoption, Amazons - Freeform, Angst, Ascension, Cannibalism, Catholic Mysticism, Criminal Organizations, Elseworld, F/F, F/M, Family, Founders, Good and Evil, Gotham, Gotham City - Freeform, Greek Mythology - Freeform, Jealousy, League of Assassins - Freeform, Madness, Matricide, Mentions of Irish mythology, Mentions of Norse Mythology, Murder, Possible Reincarnation?, Rebuilding, Reforging The Amazons, Religion, Revenge, Romance, Secret History of Gotham, Settlement, Tartarus, Teenage Pregnancy, Vendettas, Wayne Family History, Wayne Manor, mafia, omerta, parenting, schooling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:02:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 36
Words: 250,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28174353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jasontodd908/pseuds/Jasontodd908
Summary: Six years have passed since Selina Kyle almost destroyed Gotham City, and Bruce and Harleen Wayne have not only more than settled into marriage and child rearing, but so have many of their friends. Time does not heal all wounds though. Gotham still bears some of the scars from what is now called The Owl War, and it is going to have to weather yet another storm. Those who seek vengeance often leave a trail of destruction in their wake, and in this complex series of events, Batman and Batwoman are left to consider their war on crime and if they only enable the cycle of violence. They are left with one important question at the end of the day. Can they save their family...without losing themselves?
Relationships: Alfred Pennyworth/Elise Quinzel, Batman/Harley Quinn, Black Canary/The Question, Bruce Wayne/Harleen Quinzel, Carter Hall/Shayera Hol (past), Harvey Dent/Pamela Isley, Jason Todd/Barbara Gordon, Jonathan "Pa" Kent/Martha Kent, Lex Luthor/Mercy Graves, Renee Montoya/Tatsu Yamashiro, Tora Olafsdotter/Carter Hall, Two Face/Poison Ivy, Vic Sage/Dinah Lance
Series: A Saga of Earth 91192 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2063406
Comments: 285
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> QUICK NOTE: If you haven't read "When Harley Met Bruce" before this please do so. It is the first part of this continuing story. Thank you and hope some of my old hands stay on with me I hope to attract some new readers.

**_East Gotham, Happy Moon Shipping Company-Six Years Later_ **

“I want these crates loaded up quick. Don’t have time for bullshit”.

“Boss, we’re moving as quick as we can alright? Cut us some slack” one of the hulking man’s underlings complained. He scowls and picks up the thug by his shirt collar, glaring at him intently. “I don’t need excuses. And neither does she. Get the fucking boxes loaded”.

He drops the man just as suddenly, allowing him to fall to the ground. He doesn’t remain their long though, and he quickly get up to scurry back to his work.

‘Fuckers don’t understand that we’re on a time schedule’.

A few more minutes pass, minutes that were always filled with an unremitting fear for the criminal element in Gotham. 

The night was most certainly not their own anymore.

“Alright, we’re all good boss. Everything is loaded on the truck and ready to ship out”.

The man was going to nod, get in the truck and drive off. That was his plan. He wanted to be done with tonight.

Plans never work out the way we want them too.

Above them was a glass skylight that looked down upon the inner parts of the warehouse, and this particular group of Gotham’s scum, was being watched. Targeted, by stalkers in the night.

The glass shatters loudly, drawing the frightened attention of each and every member of this gang. “Fuck. We already know who that is” the leader says, not being anywhere near as frightened as the rest who all work on drawing their pistols and aiming them at the interlopers. 

The figures knelt for a moment to lessen the blow of the fall upon their bodies, but slowly they stand, not bothered at all by the myriad of weapons pointed at them. Batman was the first to recover, though Batwoman was right on his heels.

“No. You’re anything but good”.

“Bats, glad you could join us tonight” the leader says, rolling his eyes openly and crossing his arms about his tank top covered chest. He was a hulking man who would intimidate anyone he wanted to, seemingly except for one group of people in Gotham.

“We’re giving you one chance” Batwoman cuts in. “Walk away and turn yourselves in. You’re going to wind up in a prison cell. No use being in there with a broken nose too”.

“Look around you bats”.

The man splays his arms about to showcase the wall of firepower arrayed against them. “Outnumbered.. Ten to two. And we all have guns. I bet you thought you got the drop on us...wait”.

He couldn’t go on. Something was off, and it was something that only a smarter criminal would pick up on before launching into a monologue. “There’s only two of you”.

“Yeah. You can count. I’m impressed” Batwoman teases, already knowing what was waiting for these goons tonight. “Where’s the two bat brats you have tag along with you?”

A metal disc like object flies through the darkness behind them and imbeds itself in the hand of one of the nearest thugs, causing him to drop his pistol and cry out like a baby. They turn to see the two Robins standing above them in the rafter.

The boy wore a wide smile on his face, while the girl, whose red hair spilled out freely behind her, simply glared and scowled, a birdarang in her own hand, drawn and ready for release.

“Hey guys. Sorry we’re late. Got caught up with something”.

Jason jumps forward, flipping through the air and grabbing a overhanging beam to use in addition to his momentum. As he lets loose again a bola flies out through the air, wrapping around the arms of another thug who was taking aim at him.

The man falls just as Jason lands on the ground, taking just enough time to duck a charging punch thrown at him another man. He delivers a quickly delivered and well timed chop to the man’s neck, shutting his body down for the moment.

“Now it’s a little more even!” he shouts, still wearing his enthusiastic smile while engaging in combat.

Barbara was now in the melee as well, having jumped down atop yet another of the slowly decreasing number of men, and sitting on his shoulders. The man drops his pistol and tries to get the girl off of him, though he feels as her grip around his throat increases. “Pass the fuck out dammit”.

“Robin! Language!” Batwoman calls out, delivering a roundhouse kick as the initial ambush turns into just a simple melee. Barbara, wearing a face mask to hide her identity, rolls her eyes as the man falls to his knees, still struggling for breath. “There we go asshole. Nighty night”.

He finally falls completely down, his face pressed up against the dirty concrete. Barbara flips herself off of him to a standing position just in time, as more men enter the fray from outside, obviously having been on guard duty. 

One tries to leverage their charge into an advantage, swinging the bat they held high over their held as they attempt to bring it down upon the crouched redhead. Barbara gets ready, crouching lower to ready herself for impact, either from the bat or the man’s body. 

He never even gets close to her. 

Batman fires out the batclaw and grasps the bat directly out of the now confused man’s hands, though the confusion doesn’t reign long. In fact, thoughts at all don’t last long as he’s quickly knocked out by the man’s clenched fist. 

He stands defensively in front of Barbara, watching as the criminals who’d decided to gang up on the young redhead thought twice. He looked every bit the part of a lion protecting his cub. Barbara gets up and scowls, unable to help it before moving next to the man, her own fists drawn up in such a way as to communicate her desire to fight.

“I could’ve handled him”.

“I know”.

She absolutely loathed that he didn’t believe her. She could hear it in his voice. Still, there was time for dwelling later. Now? They had a fight on their hands.

Across the warehouse, near the van loaded with weapons, Batwoman and Robin were fighting as well, easily feeding off of one another’s combat styles. 

“Batwoman behind you” Jason says almost boredly, tossing a birdarang past the woman’s ducked head to take out a man attempting to use a knife. Gunshots ring out, stitching the concrete floor between them and causing ricochets throughout the warehouse.

“Hey! Guns ain’t fair!” Jason shouts out, the two running in a wide arc in opposite directions around the first goon to open fire. He didn’t know who to target first, and his lack of decision making ability would cost him, though not dearly. 

They just as rapidly come back together, and Batwoman and Jason both jump up, bringing their respective fists and elbows down on the man. He flys back, knocked out cold as his rifle scatters across the floor. 

They turn and see another goon rushing to the van, apparently wanting to get out of the area with the weapons shipment as quickly as possible. Batwoman makes to rush after the man, but Robin stops her, a hand on her shoulder.

She looks at him quizzically before he shows her the drawn explosive gel dispenser in his hand. He uses his eyebrows to hint at the van, and it dawns on the blonde what he’d done. “Ahh. Good work Robin”.

He doesn’t say anything and focuses instead on how close the man was to the van. Right before he gets to it, Jason detonates the gel, destroying the contents inside and shaking the otherwise undamaged van. The man was confused by the sound he’d just heard, alongside the shaking of the steel framed vehicle.

“Sorry pal. You should’ve shipped next day mail”.

Harleen rushes forward, using her skills as a gymnast to flip, thrust herself into the air via pushing down on the ground, and delivering a rough kick to the side of the man’s head that puts him out instantly. She lands on the ground, her leg sweeped out with a wide adrenaline fueled smile on her face.

Robin was, as usual, in awe of the skills his mother possessed. “You gotta teach me that!”

“Sure Robin. I will”.

Across the room, a more brutal battle was occurring. It couldn’t be anything but brutal with the nature of the combatants involved. 

Barbara was raining her fists down on the face of one of the nearest gangsters, though the fight had rapidly gone out of him upon first contact with the raging ball of fury that was the female Robin.

Batman was too busy to notice, being engaged in a war of his own against the gang’s leader, who had hopped into the fight after seeing his many men so easily defeated. He swung at Batman, a powerful fist that would have pulverized anything in its path had Bruce not been much faster. 

He ducks and then comes up, delivering a quick flurry of punches to the man’s side that rob him of his breath. “Fucking Bat Freak” he gasps out, wasting what little air he still had accessible to him at that moment. 

Bruce doesn’t care, and indeed he relishes this sort of bare knuckle combat, though he doesn’t return to time honored act of trash talk. Instead, he grabs the back of the man’s head and slams his knee into the man’s face repeatedly, breaking his nose on first contact. 

He keeps it out, only going as far as was necessary until it was clear that the large man was not getting up tonight.

Barbara seemed to lose interest in the limp bag of meat she was “fighting” at the same time, and she drops the man to the ground by the grip she had on his collar. “Pathetic. This really the best you guys could do?”

Jason and Batwoman were nearing the two, having stopped quickly to check on the shipment in the rear of the van. It was atomized, the gel having done a magnificent job of destroying the items without dealing any life ending damage.

She couldn’t help her pride as she smiled at Jason, knowing that he had designed the useful little tool. ‘So damn smart. How?’.

She resists the urge to run her fingers through her son’s hair, always hating that they couldn’t be seen as parents and children in the field. It was a liability and she knew that Bruce was right in drilling it into both groups that there wasn’t room for that in a life or death situation.

‘Still...I’m proud as any mama can be’.

“Yeah. One guy over there? He had an Ak. Six hundred rounds a minute and he was still too slow” Jason teases as he points behind him at the still unconscious punk who’d tried to stitch Harleen and him with said rifle.

They didn’t notice, their backs being turned, but Bruce and Barbara did. 

Apparently, they’d missed one, and he moves out from behind a stack of shipping crates, his pistol in hand and aimed directly at Jason’s back. “I’m not too slow birdbrain!”.

“I’ve got him!” Batman shouts, a batarang already flying from his hands and through the air. It imbeds itself in the barrel of the pistol, blocking the bullet and causing the gun to explode in the man’s hand. He screams in pain and drops it, though that wasn’t the end of it.

Barbara could only see two things, the gun pointed right at Jason’s back, and red.

She charges forward, taking a flying leap into the air over the man who was still trying to recover from the wound he’d just suffered. She brings her elbow up as Jason had before, though it seems she was positioning it in such a way as to do much more than simply incapacitate. 

The thug looks up at her fearfully as the redhead brings herself down onto him, the point of impact being just to the right of his neck. The positioning of her elbow, and the height from which she brought it down, crashes against the bone of his collar, and a sickening snap is heard.

For a moment, Harleen is worried that that awful sound had come from Barbara, and her motherly instincts want to make her rush forward, but as soon as one saw how the goon flew back onto the floor, and heard how he cried out in utter pain, they all knew that Barbara was definitely not the injured party.

She stood over him, rage still in her eyes.

“ROBIN!” Batman shouts in anger, and Harleen knows that it’s going to be yet another long night.

**_Apartment of Renee Montoya_ **

It was late. That she already knew. She knew that and didn’t even have to turn to look over at her LED clock. She also knew that Tatsu was just coming in. 

Judging by how she’d opened the window? It had been a good night. 

If she was angry? It wouldn’t have been done nearly as quietly.

Renee sits up in their bed, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes and falling. “Tatsu?” she murrs. “Hai”. The Japanese woman sits down on the bed, having deposited her ubiquitous Soultaker on the stand she had set up for it atop their dresser, the incense already burning to honor the woman’s ancestors. 

Renee remembered how they’d had to set up a Shinto shrine in her room. Just one of the many quirks of living with a Samurai. 

The strap of her red nightdress slowly fell down her shoulder, exposing a generous portion of her large and well rounded breast, though she doesn’t notice as she moves up behind the woman on the bed, balancing on her knees while Tatsu removes her boots.

“Was it a good night?” she asks, already knowing the answer as she rubs her girlfriend’s shoulders.

“Hai. Yes. It was very good”.

Tatsu reaches up and removes her mask, placing it on the bed stand next to them. Renee leans in and kisses the woman’s exposed neck, leaving a trail of goosebumps as she went. Slowly she works on the zipper at the back of Katana’s one piece, exposing more and more of the woman’s lithe and utterly beautiful body to herself. 

“And how was your day my aisara shi-sha?”

“Much better now that you’re here hermosa”.

The woman reaches around to take Tatsu’s jaw between her fingers, turning her face to plant her lips on the other woman’s. Tatsu eagerly returns the kiss, molding her body into Renee’s. She truly loved coming home as it allowed her a chance to relax and let Renee take charge. Still, she felt guilty. 

“Are you not tired? You had a long day too” she asks, knowing that being commissioner of Gotham city’s police department was not an easy task.

Renee rolls her eyes and picks the woman up by her waist, maintaining the grip while turning them in the bed, depositing her on her bed on her side of their sleeping arrangements. “Not too tired for this”.

The hispanic woman reaches up to her shoulders and pushes the straps of her nightie off, exposing her breasts to the woman. Tatsu was ALWAYS put in the correct mood by such a sight, and now was no exception. She leans up and presses her face in between them, her hands moving to grope the woman’s fleshy rear voraciously.

“Ahhh...bueno. See? I know my girl” she teases, running her hand through the woman’s raven black locks as she forces her deeper onto her teat. “Mmmnnff” she moans out, leaning her head back just a bit as Tatsu’s tongue encircles her nipple, suckling it gently before adding her tongue to the mix.

“Damn...that feels so good Tatsu but...this is about you” Renee teases, lightly pushing the Japanese woman back down before she grasps the edge of the limpening one piece. She pulls it upwards, Tatsu helping by lifting her arms and pulling them out of the fabric. 

Renee doesn’t stop though, and simply keeps on, trailing kisses over the woman’s exposed clavicle while continuing on to expose Tatsu’s smaller, but still beautiful breasts. “Ahhh..Renee” Tatsu whispers breathily as the woman teases her lips along the valley of her cleavage. 

Renee just looks at her with eyes aflame with passion, using her tongue and lips to caress the woman’s body. She spends only a teasing amount of time on Tatsu’s breasts, knowing that there was another goal she had.    
  
She slithers down the bed, Tatsu’s stomach, flat and well muscled with toned abs, almost shining from the woman’s paleness. Renee kisses every part, loving how the woman even smelled at that moment. It wasn’t a dirty smell, as Tatsu never seemed to sweat, but it was sweet and filled with an essence that Renee could only describe as uniquely belonging to her girlfriend. 

She was at the foot of the bed, and Tatsu was now shaking, giving light little humps against the air as she knew what was coming. Renee was more than happy to oblige her, and she pulls the one piece down the rest of the way, trying not to focus on the beautiful sight in front of her as she massages Tatsu’s legs along the way.

She throws the uniform across the room, promising that she’d wash it in their apartments washing machine tomorrow. Right now? There were more pressing matters. Tatsu was moaning, biting her lip in desire at seeing Renee step off the bed and gently run her hands up and down over her sides and breasts, giving light little squeezes to herself while she stared right back at the Japanese woman. 

It was highly arousing.

She got what she really wanted though when Renee begins to slip the remnants of her nightie down her own body, exposing her darker skin and slightly chubbier body. “Anata….anata wa tenshidesu”.

Renee giggles at the Japanese being spoken, though she makes no effort at asking for translation. Whatever it was, she knew that it was beyond flattering and loving.

She moves slowly back onto the bed, her hands rubbing at Tatsu’s clenched thighs, asking her for entrance to her most sacred of spots. “Te amo Tatsu” Renee says, smiling down at the woman who goes breathless, and eagerly allows the woman entrance.

“Watashi wa, anata o aishiteimasu Reni”.

Neither needed to translate those words to one another.

Renee keeps massaging the woman’s thighs, while slowly lowering herself between her legs. Her scent was stronger here, so well disciplined and yet so sweet. Montoya never got enough of it. She leans in and gently traces her tongue along the cleft of Tatsu’s womanhood, only lightly pressing in with the tip of her tongue. 

Tatsu inhales a deep breath, bringing up one of her hands to bite her finger, muffling her moans which she felt were dishonorable breaches of Bushido. Renee felt the exact opposite, and lived to see the composed samurai woman collapse into a heap of pleasure and lust. 

But only for her.

Tatsu’s other hand moves down to run through Renee’s hair, her back propping itself up on the pillows as she spreads her legs even wider, hiding absolutely nothing from her lover. Renee continues to lavish attention on her womanly petals, moving upwards only to dab at her clitoris which was slowly awakening to the pleasure.

Tatsu moans even louder, her hips beginning to gyrate as they force themselves up harder against Renee’s face. She didn’t mind at all, loving how even if Tatsu resisted her urges, her body gave in wholeheartedly. 

Renee focuses solely on the woman’s clitoris now, at least with her tongue. Her hands abandon their place at Tatsu’s thighs and move upwards, snaking up the woman’s body and causing fire wherever they went. She knew their final location, and the woman refused to resist at all as Renee’s fingers clamped around her breasts. Her own hands moved atop them, forcing the woman onto a slightly rougher groping as she handled the sensitive buds.

  
Renee’s fingers close over the woman’s nipples at the same time as a particularly pleasurable assault upon her now very excited button began. Renee took to it eagerly, slurping up the excess juices that were rapidly coming from her lover, seeing that the same taste was present in this aspect as it was in her scent.

Everytime she left Tatsu’s clitoris to tease along another part of her womanhood, Tatsu tried to force her back where she was wanted and Renee, like an errant child who knew they were being naughty, would listen.

She knew others might find it “gross” or off putting, though she never knew how one could use those words to describe something that was part of their lover, but Tatsu had a well trimmed and manicured thatch of dark pubic hair right above her most sacred entrance.

Renee enjoyed how it looked, even in the dark, shaped as it was as a teardrop. She loved to feel it pressed against her, letting her get a much more primal scent of the woman she considered her mate. But...she digressed.

Her assault on Tatsu’s vagina was beginning to overload the poor girl, obviously already worked up on adrenaline from a night spent hard at work. Renee doubles down as the woman’s humps into the air and against her face increase in severity, signalling her impending orgasm.

Renee loved this. 

She lived for it.

And soon? It came.    
  
Tatsu cums violently, unable to suppress her scream though Renee keeps it up, cupping the woman with her lips to ensure that she gets as much as possible. She licks her up and down with the intensity of a thirsty dog.

Soon, all too soon in Renee’s opinion, Tatsu’s body falls back down, spent for the moment. Renee takes her tim in moving back up the bed, making a show of collecting some of the woman’s love juices on her finger and further licking them off. 

Tatsu regards her with a tired smile from under her hand which she placed over her eyes, blushing brightly. “Come on cosa caliente. Even after six years I can make you embarrassed?”

  
Renee lays in the bed next to the woman, cuddling her close and kissing her lips, allowing Tatsu a small taste of herself. 

When they retract from each other’s lips, they remain close, touching each other in gentler and much more loving ways. “Ohh Renee, let me…” she makes, remembering that her girlfriend hadn’t been pleasure. Renee uses her greater strength to push to push the woman back down onto the bed however, moving onto her side to look down at her.

“I know you’re tired amante. That was just me helping you relax”.

She peppers Tatsu’s cheek with kisses, pulling the blanket up over their naked bodies to keep them warm. Tatsu cuddles into the woman, loving that she understood her even without words. She yawns loudly and closes her eyes, laying her head on Renee’s chest. “I love you”.

“I love you too Tatsu” Renee says, kissing the woman’s head. 

They were soon falling asleep in each other’s arms, content that the city was safe. 

After all, Tatsu wasn’t the only one keeping watch in the night.

**_The Batcave_ **

“I didn’t think I had to get your written permission to take down a lowlife piece of shit”.

The argument had started as soon as they’d gotten back into the cave, and it didn’t show any signs of stopping anytime soon. 

“You shattered his collarbone!” Bruce shouts back, advancing quickly on Barbara who balks at how angry her adoptive father looked. “We needed him. He would’ve talked, told us where the shipments were coming from. But you sent him into shock”.

Barbara wanted to retort, and indeed her mouth opened to do just that before she closed it and looked away. Barbara and Jason were standing off to the side, unsure of what to say or do as Bruce and Barbara butted heads like they’d done so many times before. 

All had taken off their masks or cowls respectively, but were still left in their uniforms. 

Jason wanted to go to Barbara right then and there, but he knew that this had to happen. He couldn’t help the disappointment on his face, and he crosses his arms and looks down, shaking his head.

Barbara caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and turns to see it. 

  
The rage disappears from her face instantly at the realization that Jason was disappointed in her. She knew it was that and it grated on her very soul as if someone took a knife and carved off pieces. 

She hated when he looked like that.

“You’re right” she says suddenly, turning back to Bruce. “That was dumb. I’m sorry”.

She wasn’t going to concede the whole fight though, and she has one more thing to say as she turns to move away into the confines of the cave. “But he deserved it. They all do”.

The words were ominous and everyone in the cave knew what she meant by them. Barbara had the least tact or care for the criminals they fought, and ever since she and Jason became Robins it had grown.

“Master Bruce...Miss Harleen….is everything alright?” Alfred asks, having heard only the second half of the confrontation within the bat family.

Bruce looks over at the man and finds his mind drift back to four years prior when Alfred was standing in that exact spot.

_ “Master Wayne. If I may enquire, where are Master Jason and Miss…” _

_ “HAH!” _

_ His question was answered as the two youths jumped down on him from above, snatching up a sandwich each off of the tray he was carrying. “GOOD LORD!” the butler shouted, almost dropping the tray. He would have too if Elise hadn’t rushed forward and steadied him, momentarily startled as well. _

_ Harleen and Bruce just laughed, having known that their kids would pull such a stunt so soon after donning their new costumes.  _

_ “Look at us Alfred, Nana!” Barbara said, jumping excitedly and twirling around to showcase her green cape that was splayed out over her back.  _

_ The ensembles that the two children wore were exactly the same, though Master Jason wore green tights in place of the shorts that Barbara wore.  _ _  
_ _  
_ _ Alfred and Elise look at each other, sharing a relieved smile now that they knew it was not an attack. _

_ “Well, you both look rather dashing. Like Robin Hood!” Elise supplies. _

_ “That’s who we are!” Jason says. _

_ “Robin Hood?” _

_ “No. No. Just Robins” _

_ “Both of you?” Alfred asks skeptically. _

_ “Uhhmm. It was Jason’s idea and he always has the best ideas so I said yes”. _

_ Alfred looks up at Bruce and Harleen, a questioning look in his eyes that asked without words if they were absolutely sure that this was a good idea. Elise held the same trepidations, Jason and Barbara being her grandbabies after all. _

_ Bruce just nods and Harleen smiles down at the two children, excited that after years of training they would finally be allowed to go out and fight crime with their parents. _

_ Bruce and Harleen both pull their cowls up and over their faces, gesturing towards the now enlarged batmobile that could transport them much more easily than previously. _

_ “Robins. Lets move out. Question is already on patrol”. _

_ Jason and Barbara both begin to rush towards the batmobile, treating the contents of the batcave as if they were their own personal obstacle course. Jason jumped over a table, and Barbara slid under, each coming out the other side and continuing to move in a synchronism that Harleen and Bruce had only seen in themselves and the Sage’s prior.  _

_ The two children jump onto the hood of the batmobile, waiting for their mentors and parents to join them. _

_ “This is the best day of my life”. _

The words had been spoken by Barbara, and he’d never forgotten them, taking an immense amount of joy in having the privilege to watch them grow up into the people they were today. Somewhere along the line though, Barbara changed, and he found it increasingly hard to reach the girl.    
  
She’d completely frozen Harleen out, which was something that was slowly driving the blonde insane. He knew why of course, but he just….he couldn’t see how to break through the wall that the redhead had thrown up around herself. 

“I’m uhh...gonna hit the showers then go to bed. Big day tomorrow” Jason says, reminding Batman of his presence.    
  
Jason had been much different. Like a flower in bloom as his Aunt Pamela would say. He was someone who strived to excel in everything he did. Training was nonstop with him, and for that he was more than grateful as it kept Barbara up to snuff as well.

Jason was the only one that Barbara hadn’t frozen out, and she did everything he asked of her, even if she grumbled all the way through. So, Barbara was as well trained as Jason was, though certainly not as reserved in her use of violence.

“Alright sweetiepie. Let me guess? Big test? Or a big date?” Harleen asks, happy for the more comfortable distraction.

  
“Both” the boy says with a blush. “I’m more worried about the date though. The test is in U.S history. I’ll be fine”.

“And who is the date with little ladies man?” Elise asks while handing him a bottle of water. 

The boy hems and haws, not wanting to really say. “Well, just a girl I know from school”.

“Ahh” Bruce nods. “I think I know who it is”.

“Who is it then Master Bruce?”

“Put all the pieces together Al. He’s afraid to say who it is, and it’s a girl from school. That only means one thing”.

“Jenny Cobblepot” Harleen says, being just as much a detective as her husband.

“That horrible little girl who teases you and Barbara all throughout school?” Elise asks, scandalized.

“Nana, that was years ago. She was just a kid. We all were” he says, as usual being the mature one. “She’s grown up. Just like Barbara and I”.

“And in more ways than one I assume?” Alfred supplies while a scandalized Elise butts him with her elbow. “Alfred!”.

Jason just blushes, indeed realizing that part of the reason he was so keen to go out with Jenny was her gorgeous and flawless body. Harleen meanwhile looks down at her own chest and then at Bruce while smirking.

‘Like father like son’.

“It’s not like that at all!” Jason protests, blushing furiously. 

“Ahh so the fact of her having 36d breasts at sixteen has nothing to do with?” Harleen asks skeptically. Jason blushes even more, trying to defend himself. “Hey! No, no way. She’s smart. Top of her class. Pretty industrious too. She already works at her father’s lounge, managing accounts” he says, reaching for anything that might indicate his interest in her being anything more than physical.

“Oswald Cobblepot is her father correct?”

“Yeah, why?” he asks Bruce.

“I’ve just heard some things. Nothing concrete” he says. “But still”.

Jason nods, instantly back on vigilante mode. “I’ll be on the lookout but, I really don’t think Jenny would be involved in any of it to be honest”.

“Hmm”.

It was clear that none of them liked it, but they couldn’t come up with anything concrete to say about it that would deter Jason. Except Harleen.

“Barbara isn’t going to like it” she calls out as Jason begins to walk over to the changing area, switching out of his gear and into his robe as he prepares for a shower.

“I know but hey, she’ll be okay right? I mean, how long can you hold a grudge over childish teasing. She’ll like Jenny after a while. Everyone does. Especially if I’m lucky and manage to get us on a more than one time basis”.

Harleen hated that Jason was so smart, yet so naive. ‘That’s not what I meant’ she thinks with an audible sigh. Bruce comes up beside her and holds her close, leaning in to kiss her cheek as their adoptive son walks up the stairs into the manor. “How can he not see how she feels for him?”

“He’s at that age Harleen” Elise says. “He’s only focused on big tits like you pointed out”.

“Elise!” Alfred says, taking his turn to be scandalized at the woman who was his girlfriend, Bruce’s mother in law, and the Wayne family housekeeper. “What? Also Harleen, Dinah put the kids down before going out on patrol. They’re set”.

“Good, good. Still, I’m gonna go check on them. Kiss them goodnight”.

“I’ll be up in a moment” Bruce says, wanting to shut down the computer for the night while leaving the cave open for when Dinah and Vic returned. Seeing as their jobs were at the Manor, those two took the later night shifts, allowing Bruce and Harleen more rest to accommodate their day time needs.

Elise and Alfred smile wide, each glad that their responsibilities as parents always came first, and they were never content to simply let the nanny do their job for them. 

It was hard being Gotham’s protectors, the warden of Arkham, CEO of Wayne Enterprises and a mom and dad at once, but Bruce and Harleen did it seamlessly, moving from one thing right to the next without a break. 

It was clear that they lived for it.

For the moment, the mood was lighter thanks to Jason’s dating dilemma, or rather the dilemma it posed for the others. But a dark cloud still hung over them, and they couldn’t exactly shake their fears that were coiling in them for their oldest daughter.

**_In the Manor_ **

She couldn’t sleep. 

She’d showered, changed and made all the necessary preparations but she still couldn’t sleep. So, like a ghost, she walked the halls of the manor, checking in on her little sisters first to see that they were safe.

She peaks her head into the door, opening it only slightly.

The sight that greets her warms her heart. Martha and Mary, two adorable little girls that loved their big sister, were sound asleep. Mary even had her mouth open, the slightest bit of drool rolling out over her lips as the six year old giggles in her sleep. 

“I love you two”. 

She slowly closes the door again, not wanting to disturb them. Not with the thoughts on her mind right now. She wouldn’t be good company.

She continues to walk down the halls, making large loops of the manor in a directionless pace. 

_ “Make sure this fucker dies this time!” _

She winces as the memory of the gun shot goes off in her mind, though her jaw quickly clenches with a fearsome strength. She keeps walking.

Other memories quickly come, and she sees the rancid pock marked face of the man who had tried to kill her all those years ago.

_ “When your mother sent us after you, she warned us that you’d be hard to kill” _

She leans against a wall, gasping for air as she tries to reorientate herself. “Fucker” she whispers. 

_ “DADDDY!” _

She hears herself cry out and watches her father die all over again, and it was like a knife piercing right into her gut. She is panting, her face contorted in utter rage. Soon though...she calms. She needs to. It was too late at the manor and there were six children who needed to sleep. 

  
She steadies herself and stands up straight, taking deep breathes. Her thoughts, however, were still dark. 

‘If I ever find you Barbara..’ she thinks, refusing to see her biological mother and the women she was named after as her actual mother. No. Harleen Wayne was her mother, even if she couldn’t stand her sometimes. 

‘I’ll kill you’.

She walks down the hallway, suddenly feeling that her pacing and anger had made her tired. She’d have to apologize to Bruce again, and she still felt bad about seeing the disappointment in their eyes, but..especially Jason.

‘You have to understand Jason. Out of everyone...you have to be with me’.

She’d apologize again, though her heart wouldn’t be in it. The last person she felt sorry for was a scumbag thug who made his own bed. No. They all preyed on Gotham and her people, sucking the life out of them day after day after day

She wanted to return the favor.

**_The Iceberg Lounge_ **

“Uhh, here’s your drink Ms….”.

“Mask. Call me Black Mask”.

The woman reaches out and takes the champagne glass, before she places it on the table. She doesn’t drink from it of course, being unable to do so due to the...well, black mask that covers her face.

She sat, watching the late night party goers enjoy their time together. She had no need for such joy. This? This was all business. Nothing more, nothing less.

Still...she was going to enjoy it a bit.

“Who the fuck are you and why did you want to see me freak?”

The man who approached the table was someone who was not to be taken lightly. She knew that. She’d always known that. Alfredo Rigatello was a made man, almost from the womb. It didn’t matter. He was still a low life scumbag.

“Sit down Alfredo” the woman says, causing the man a slight amount of discomfort as he was only able to see her eyes through the slits in the skull mask she wore. There was a commanding tone in his voice, one that the large man didn’t feel he was able to countermand. 

“I’ve got guys all over this place” he warns.

“I’m sure you do”.

  
He sits, though he stops to give her a look over, trying to place her. A positive idea on her face was impossible, and her body, while undoubtedly feminine and curvy, was covered up by a perfectly done up white three piece suit.

“Who the hell are you?”

She doesn’t answer, and instead turns her head to look out over the lounge. “Do you remember that place across the city? What was it called? Ohh yeah, the Socialite Club. Do you remember?”

That definitely piqued his interest, and he seemed to become more interested in the conversation. “Yeah, a nifty little place. It was a joint little thing between me and an old friend of mine. Closed down after he died”.

“Your friend’s name was Franco Bertinelli wasn’t it?”

He couldn’t place her voice either, though he chalked it up to how the mask muffled it, making it sound even more sinister than her appearance already made her look.

“Yeah”.

“Hmm”.

“I’m getting impatient. You’re wasting my time. The past..it’s the past. Don’t wanna talk about it” Alfredo waves it off. You said you have a business proposition alright?” he asks, leaning in. “I wanna hear it. The past is the past, like I said, but the present? That’s money”.

She takes the glass in her hand, gently teasing her finger around the rim. 

“The past isn’t exactly the past though, is it Alfredo” she begins. “The past is why we’re here today. It causes the next day you know? In fact, how much of our organization, this...thing of ours, can be traced to what’s happened in the past? For example, you’re here, right now, because in the past you helped kill Franco Bertinelli by allying with Steven Mandragora”.

Alfredo was getting very uncomfortable into the waters in which this conversation was going. 

“How...how did you know about that?” he whispers fiercely.

“Because I was there”.

“I...I don’t know who you are but….fuck this. Tommy! Francesco!” he calls out to the two nearest of his men. “Get over here”.

  
Instead of rushing to their boss, the two men both dapperly dressed, turn away with downcast eyes. They were ashamed of themselves of course, but business was business.

“They aren’t the only ones” the voice says, drawing the confused man’s gaze back to her. “Your whole organization? I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. So they didn’t. Now YOUR organization, is MY organization. Isn’t that funny?”

“You fucking bitch…” he seethes, looking around to see all his men either abandoning him or exiting out of the club. Others? They were waiting for the order. This was all occurring without the civvies even realizing it, and they wanted to keep it that way. 

“Life comes full circle Alfredo” Black Mask says. “Your past yesterday becomes your present today. Just like you sold out Franco Bertinelli for his slice of the pie, your guys? They sold you out, though it was for a lot less. Apparently Mandragora doesn’t let them wet their beaks as much as my father did. He loved them you know? He loved you” she says, causing realization to dawn on the man.

“Helena?” he asks breathlessly.

She doesn’t respond and instead breaks her champagne glass on the side of the table, sending the contents and some shards of glass spilling to the floor. Before the older mobster could respond, she had thrust the glass into his neck, slicing open his jugular and sending blood instantly gushing out.

They were alone in the VIP section, just as she had arranged it. Nobody saw what happened to the mobster, and nobody ever would.

Helena is calm and collected, watching as the man falls to the floor, fighting to keep the blood from gushing out of him.

She stands and walks over to him, kneeling down to deliver a few last words. “My father made a mistake. Tried to play fair. Thought the rules his grandpa and the others set up back in the old country still mattered. Fucks like you ruined it. I am not my father. He was a good man despite all appearances. Me? Well...I don’t pretend to be good”.

She reaches down to press the broken shards of glass in further, causing the man to gurgle out in pain. He dies, right there on the floor, with not a single soul caring.

Helena reaches down and brushes a white hankie against the man’s open wound, collecting some of the blood before placing it in her jacket pocket. “Vai al diavolo, pezzo di merda”.

She steps over her father’s former associate, and walks out of the section, instantly escorted on other side by two new employees of hers. “Where too Mask?”

“The old Bertinelli place. I bought my family home back. We’re setting up there. Just like in the good old days”.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day? Wow. I must really love you guys huh? Merry Christmas! Also, am I doing a good job at teen angst? *Smells Like Teen Spirit Starts playing*

**_Gotham City Hall_ **

“Now, I just want to say...yes, it’s been hard in this city. Nobody appreciates that more than me but the answer isn’t just throwing money at it. We’ve been throwing money at the situation for decades, and that didn’t help” Harvey begins, as usual sparring with a horde of ravenous reporters. 

“The thing about money is...it goes both ways. If I spend it, the people who gave it expect something back. This revolving door policy of money in, money out, has not worked to make Gotham City competitive, nor has it increased our quality of life. I was criticized in my first terms for letting the banks go out and figure it out themselves. Everyone thought that Gotham would fall because of it. It didn’t. In fact, they figured it out themselves and now are practicing much fairer and safe business practices”.

Harvey grips the stand intently, wishing that Pamela was with him right now. She would disagree with everything he was saying, but she would also hold his hand and that would make him feel a lot better.

“I say no to corporate welfare in this city. I say no to safety hammocks. Gotham is independent and strong. Let’s keep it that way. Now…I...I gotta admit you guys tire me out” he jokes, a wry smile on his face that has no effect of the dispassionate media. 

He looks up at the sky and shakes his head, realizing that it was just another rainy day in Gotham, and that his speech and arguments for his own administration meant nothing. 

“Umm well, next question I suppose?”

A reporter from the Gotham Voice raises their hand and he decides against his better judgement to answer a question from them. “Uhh yes, Janet Cooper correct?”

“Yes Mr. Dent. Gotham Voice” she says dispassionately. “There has been much debate in the country about so called masked vigilantes and if they are even legal. Most states and cities have reacted by regulating or outright banning them. Why hasn’t Gotham followed suit?”

Harvey was angered by this question.

Angered by it more than anything else that was asked of him today. He knew that it was because the closest thing he had to a family were the so called vigilantes that this woman was suggesting he ban and regulate. 

“You’re of course referring to Superman and his Justice League initiative correct?”

“Yes sir, but in reality, I’m more so asking why you have refused to instill common sense regulations and controls upon the unchecked, almost criminal, masked figures who operate in our city. Last year alone there was an expenditure for three billion dollars in property damage…”.

“I’m a fiscal conservative” he interrupts. “Trust me, I’ve gone over the paperwork a thousand times. Let me ask you a personal question Ms. Cooper. Do you admire Superman?”

“Yes. I think the entire population of the world does. At least the sane ones” she retorts.

“Ahh that classic biting wit” he says, nodding. “I suppose you also support forced conscription?”

“Most assuredly not. What does that have to…”.

“It has a lot to do with it” Harvey interrupts, being well aware of the situation involving Superman and his so called “Justice League”.

“You are most likely well aware that Superman partnered with the United Nations. There’s a lot I can say about that organization. The fact that they have China, Saudia Arabia, Yemen and others on the Human Rights Council of all things is hilarious. But I’m just a mayor, so let’s keep it limited for my pea brain huh?”.

This was a bit of Big Bad Harv being released, the part of his psyche that he kept hidden until the right moment. Now? It was the right moment.

“Superman announced himself to the world only last year. He told us that he was from another planet, a world known as Krypton. That’s all well and good. Welcome to Earth. The issue is that he can do things that none of us can do. Show of hands, how many of you can fly faster than a speeding bullet?”

No hands go up, as expected. “Ahh good. Anyone got laser beam eyes? Or super strength?”

Again, silence.

“I don’t know many people that do. But he can do all these things, putting him a thousand times ahead of everyone else on this planet. To top it off, he surrounds himself with other supers who are a bit above Gotham’s normal fare” he says. “A speedster that can circle the world a million times before you can get out of bed, an Amazonian princess who’s trained her whole life for war if we are to believe the newly minted Themysciran ambassador and a host of others who have power beyond our wildest dreams”.

He pauses for dramatic effect. “That’s all well and good. They’ve done good after all. But you’re not looking at the bigger picture. They’ve started to throw their weight around a bit more. You wont hear about that in the news because the news has decided that these walking and talking atom bombs are the next best thing and we should embrace them without stopping to think”.  
  
The reporters were eagerly jotting down every one of his words, having taken an immense dislike towards the Mayor who had shaken up the status quo so much that the shadowy figures whose interests lay hidden behind these front groups were now using them to try and oust him.

‘Best of fucking luck with that’ he mentally seethes, seeing them as nothing more than a legal Court of Owls trying to protect their privileges. 

“A month ago, Superman removed Hosan Fulani from his office in Al Fharid in the nation of Kirkministan. Fulani was a mass murderer, a tyrant and a thorn in the side of the civilized and free world for decades as he ruled. In fifteen minutes, Superman removed him from the seat of government. Fifteen. What did he do with the man?”

Everyone already knew the answer.

“He threw him to his own people and let them rip him apart in righteous anger. Now, if you ask me and my darker nature? I’d say he got what he deserved. But...the rational side of me, the one that wants to appeal to our better angels tells me that what Fulani and his people deserved was a day in Court. If this was the only incident, I wouldn’t be so alarmed by how quick you all are to embrace him”.

“Everywhere this so called League goes, they interfere. What I have seen is a far from unbiased group acting as arbiters of peace and instead, I have seen the actions of lobbyists with metahumans, working to subvert more and more nations and people’s freedom of movement in an attempt to tie them down under one authority” he says. “I realise that may sound conspiratorial, possibly because it is, but as Mayor I promise to always tell you the truth of what’s on my mind and why I’m saying what I am, or doing what I am doing. As for heroes as I like to call them, I do not support the legislation that would criminalize any non League sanctioned heroics. Over nineteen nations have already put into action such policies and I see that as a crippling blow to independence and freedom”.

Harvey stops to take a drink, feeling a bit parched at this moment.

When he puts the water bottle down, he resolves to simply end the conversation. “When we see something in our communities, and we choose to do the right thing, that is when we become heroes. If you ask me, you shouldn’t need a permit to do the right thing. Our protectors are held to the same standards as any other citizen. If only more of us were like them, then perhaps we wouldn’t rely on them so much but until that day comes? Gotham City will maintain its independence, and the heavy handed forceful policies of Superman are not welcome here. Thank you”.

He abruptly turns and moves back into the hall, ignoring the cacophony of calls from behind him go ignored. “So much for not covering for you Bruce. Ohh...what a day” he says to himself, before sighing and thanking one of his aides for opening the door into city hall for him.

“Anything I can help with Mr. Mayor?”

The voice was soothing and warm, and instantly familiar. The scarred man turns to see Pamela, beautiful as ever in one of her red maternity dresses that matches her hair. She was holding five year old Harleen in the crook of her arms, though as soon as she saw her daddy she reached for him. 

“Daddy!”.

“My little girl” he teases right back, taking the cloying five year old in his arms. She instantly wraps her arms about his neck, and he covers her head in kisses before turning to his wife. “And how’s my beautiful wife?” 

“Pregnant Harvey. Very pregnant” she says before kissing his lips and taking his hand in her own. ‘Ahh that’s it. Perfection’. He turns to Harleen, who was the spitting image of her mother in every way except for her beautiful brown eyes which were all his. “Now. I’ve answered enough questions for the day haven’t I? So, let me ask an important little lady THE most important question of the day”.

The little girl giggles and Harvey bounces her in his arm, little Harleen already knowing the drill. “I’ll take a question from daddy!” she giggles out, loving when she got the opportunity to copy her powerful father.

“Yes thank you Mayor Harleen. Now, your mother and I are undoubtedly hungry. We wanted to ask what your plan was for dinner? Does Gotham’s mayor have a plan for dinner?”

Pamela smiles out lovingly as well, absolutely adoring the scene that played out before her eyes. She places her hand on her large and round belly, feeling the little rugrat that was already inside of her kicking. ‘And we’re about to do it all again’.

“Uhh ohh, the reporter live from inside mommy’s belly wants to know as well”.

“This is very important honey. The Dent family needs your leadership”.

Harleen bites her lip and looks around before smiling. “Burger! The people of Gotham want burgers and..french fries! And a chocolate shake!”.

“Ahh so the diner it is then?”

The little girl nods. Harvey had figured that this would be her answer, and that was why he asked it. “Uhhm!”.

“Well, I can say easily that Mayor Harleen Dent is on the fast track to being reelected mayor of the Dents at least” he teases before kissing her cheeks. “Beating Harvey Dent out once again for the office”.

As they walk to the rear exit of city hall where their limousine was waiting, he turns to his wife and kisses her hand, letting it back down before squeezing her tightly. “Is everything okay Harvey?”

She knew something was wrong. She could sense it. Of all the subject she had knowledge of, botany and Harvey Dent were the top two, though she wasn’t sure which of those was number one. He looks at his wife and nods yes despite the uneasy feeling in his stomach.

‘Something is going wrong with the world. I see it. I can’t tell them. They don’t need to be afraid. Bruce. I’ll talk to Bruce and Vic. Superman is a threat, I don’t care what anyone says we need to have a plan. Just in case’.

He was hamstrung in his efforts by the simple fact that he was just the mayor of Gotham City. There had been calls for him to run for the senate or congress, but at the end of the day he preferred to have his roots right where his little wanted to be. He couldn’t take their family away from them. Bruce and Harleen, their kids and Vic and Dinah and theirs, Alfred, Elise, Jason and Barbara.  
  


He found he didn’t want to lose them either.

‘So. Gotham it is. If you wanna keep making a change, this is where it is gonna happen’.

“Yeah Pam. Everything is fine. How are you? And most importantly, hows our little bun?”

“She’s kicking up a storm. It really wont be too long now until our little bun is a crying little ball” she says, openly pretending to be apathetic or dismayed but secretly being overjoyed. Of all the things that Pamela had taken from mother nature in relation to her powers, fertility and a maternal streak a mile wide were number one.

“I’m so excited Pam. Honestly”.

She turns to him and smiles sadly. “Harvey...I...I’m really sorry I can’t give you a boy sweetie. I know you want one in the worst way and I wish more than anything I…”.

“Hey, hey Pamela Dent” he corrects her. “Our babies are perfect. Isn’t that right Harleen?” he asks the nodding girl in his arms. “Whatever children we have? Well, they’re perfect to me. I’m the first guy who could literally say they can be green and I wouldn’t care and one hundred percent mean it” he teases.

Pamela laughs and tries to let his words comfort her, but she still had that lingering desire to make his dreams come true. When they’d first conceived they had to seek specialist help due to Ivy’s particular genetic make up. Nobody knew what caused it, but one thing they could figure out was that Pamela was perfectly able to conceive, something they already knew, and carry a baby to term.

What they also found out that development of the child was heavily influenced by her genes. Harvey’s sperm did the work, but Ivy’s body did the sculpting. And like a plant, that body tried to reproduce itself to the best of its abilities. That was why Harleen Dent looked like a carbon copy of her mother in everything except her eyes, and why the baby inside of Pamela right now was definitely a girl who would be the same.

When she had found out, part of her had been a little let down. She loved her children with all of her heart but...she also wanted a little boy. One that looked like Harvey and would come to her with a skinned knee to kiss.

“Hungry babe?”

“Famished” she says, happy that he broke her out of her sad thoughts. “Well, let’s go get something to eat. I could use a burger like Harleen suggested and a chocolate shake might cool things down too”.

**_Wayne Manor_ **

“Bye mom, bye dad” Jason says, ready to scoot out the door and get into the limo that took them all to school. “Hey hey!” Harleen shouts, stopping the young man in his tracks. “What?”

“Come give me a kiss goodbye”.

“Mom…”.

“Ahh, come on”.

  
Jason smiles and good naturedly leans down to kiss his mom on the cheek, turning to Bruce and giving him a wave. “Don’t even ask me to kiss you”.

Bruce just laughs and picks up his coffee to take a sip. “Have a good day at school and...good luck with your date tonight. Remember what I asked?”

“Yup, recon, recon, recon. Always on recon pops” he says, jokingly jabbing the man in the shoulder. Bruce feigns injury and smirks. “Easy on the old man. I’m frail”.

“Right. Love you guys. I’ll talk to you soon”.

He turns to see Martha and Mary, both packed up with their lunches and small backpacks loaded. “Well morning you two. Already ready for kindergarten”.

“Well heya you two. Let me guess…”.

“Carry us!” Mary says excitedly, the little redhead jumping up and down for her teenage brother to pick her up while Martha is much more reserved, though wanting the same thing. “Both of you? I don’t know. You’re a little too big for that” Dinah teases, moving into the room with her own brood in tow. 

“Alright. Your dad is in the car. Victor, I want you to behave today okay? No running around the playground and screaming. Charlie, make sure to eat your veggies at lunch. Little Bruce…” she turns to her third son who stood there with a smile, being the most well behaved out of the four. “Yes mama?”

She didn’t know what to tell him as he never really got in trouble or did anything she asked him not too. It was uncanny in many respects. “Umm….draw me a picture today cutie! I always love your pictures” she says, reaching for something, anything to tell the boy so he wouldn’t feel left out. “Okay mama!”.

“Rosaleen? Don’t get into fights with the other girls okay sweetie?” she asks, knowing that that was incredibly hard to ask of the young girl who was so much like her. She kneels down, stroking her fingers over her cheeks. “Even if they make fun of you. Remember, each freckle you have makes you even cooler, and they’re just jealous”.

The little blonde girl just nods. “Okay mommy”.

“I love you. All of you. Even you Barbara!” she shouts up the stairs at the girl who looked as if she had just rolled out of bed and thrown on her clothes before grabbing her backpack. 

“Love you too Aunt Dinah. We all ready yet?” she asks, not wanting to face her parents this morning.

“Yup. All ready” Jason says, letting Martha and Mary climb either onto his back to wrap their arms around his neck, or into his arms for him to carry her. “My little monkeys” Harleen says, while Martha just calls out “ohh ahh aaahhh aaahhh!” to further her mother’s joke.

Harleen turns to Barbara and smiles. “Have a good day sweetie. I’ll see you after school”. She hated walking on eggshells with the girl, but she wouldn’t let her leave the house without at least saying goodbye. The shadow of last night was still hanging over them, and none of the group were sure what to say.

Barbara makes to get in the car, wanting to just leave without any further confrontation, but Bruce stops that and stands up, moving over to Jason and giving each of his daughters a peck on the cheek. “Now, you two have a good day and behave. I love you. Jason, take the girls to the car” he says, gently commanding the man.

Jason listens to the man, giving one final wave to his family. “See you everyone. Love you!”

“Goodbye Master Jason”.

“Bye sweetie! Nana loves you too!”

“See you later Jason” Dinah adds. 

When he was gone, attention slowly drops away, though it was implicit that they were still focused on what was brewing between Barbara and Bruce. He looks at her, a little harshly at first before he sighs and visibly calms down. Barbara just turns her gaze away and scowls.

“Barbara...about last night”.

“I get it already. I screwed up. I said I’m sorry. What more do you want?” she snaps.

“I don’t want anything more, and if you’d stop being angry for one second maybe you’d hear me” he says, snapping just as quickly back before remembering that his purpose in having this talk was to deescalate the situation, not heighten it.

“Look..Barbara...I understand and you know that. Better than anyone. I just want you to know that whenever I get angry with you, or try to correct you, I’m still fully on your side. I just want you to be the best version of you you can be”.

“So you want to change me? That it?”

“No” he sighs, reaching out and placing his hand on her shoulder, and to his surprise he doesn’t shrug it off. “I don’t want to change you. I want you to be you. It seems like you’re the one who wants to change yourself, into something you never were before”.

“People grow up. Things change” she says, though this time with much less venom in her voice. 

“One thing never will change Barbara. You’ll always be my daughter, and I really don’t care how you feel about that. That isn’t changing no matter what” he says firmly. “Now. I want you to have a good day, and when you come home, you and I are going to go out on patrol. Just the two of us”.

It was unspoken that they would take this time to talk, or rather that Bruce would take the time to talk and Barbara would take the time to ignore him. 

“Alright. Sure. Whatever”.

The two were quiet, and Bruce’s arm slowly drops off of her, leaving him unsure as to the real state of affairs between them.

Barbara makes to move around him, though she’s stopped at the door by Bruce’s words. “Can I get a hug goodbye? And maybe your mother too?”

She turns and looks at the man, waiting as usual with open arms. He smiles and nods, waiting. She doesn’t disappoint him, not this time. She moves back and wraps her arms about his midsection, hugging the much larger man.

“I love you Barbara. You know that right?”

  
“I know. I love you too”.  
  


She wanted to cry, but she didn’t let her tears fall. She didn’t want to embarrass herself anymore than she already had. She hears a chair push itself back, and other people move in. “I...I wasn’t looking for a group hug” she says, knowing that Harleen was behind her.

  
“Well, the funny thing about looking and finding? You sometimes find what you ain’t lookin’ for and you look for what you ain’t findin’” Elise teases, joining in on the hug and naturally pulling Alfred along. “Alright, alright. Let me go”.

“What’s the magic word?” Dinah asks.

“Aunt Dinah…” she whines.

Harleen just sits back and smiles, waiting her turn for a one on one. 

“Please…” Barbara says, finally acquiescing as her family gives in. She shoulders her back pack to a better position and once again makes for the door. “Barbara…” Harleen calls out, gently grasping her arm. The redhead looks up into her adoptive mother’s blue eyes, seeing the unconditional love and affection in the woman’s eyes that she was not ready for this morning.

All last night, she’d been tossing and turning, wondering why she’d lost her mother’s love as a child. Why did her mother try and kill her? Why did she kill her father? Why did she destroy her family? Now? She was looking back at all her recent behavior and attitudes and wondering what she did to deserve the love she saw in Harleen’s eyes.

She felt ashamed, something she didn’t like feeling. 

Without any more words she leans forward and hugs Harleen close, and the simple action almost makes Harleen want to cry in joy. “I love you sweetie. And you better know that”.

“I know”.

“Good. Just remember that. No matter what. You’re going through stuff. I get it. You’re growing into a beautiful woman” Harleen says, poking the girl’s nose as she backs up a bit and causing Barbara to roll her eyes and smile. “Which is confusing all in itself. But just remember. Everyone around you? Right here...we’re your family and we have your back”.

“I know mom. I love you too”.

“Alright, go have a good day at school okay?” she says, finally allowing the girl to catch up with the rest who were undoubtedly waiting for her. “And don’t give Uncle Vic any trouble!” Harleen shouts, knowing that she wasn’t heard.

“Eh, she didn’t hear me” Harleen says, moving back to the table and her cup of coffee.

“You know, you were a bit like that at her age Harleen” Elise says, washing the dishes. “Was I?”

“Nah. Not at all. Just razzing you. You were very quiet. Always focused on school”

“I seem to recall Master Bruce being the same way” Alfred interjects.

Bruce returns to the table and his coffee, picking up the paper and going over the news bulletins for the morning, his mind still on his daughter.

“Well...I’ve really got to get to work” Harleen says, making to leave as she throws on her coat and grabs her purse. She quickly walks over to Bruce and pecks his cheek lovingly, giving her mother a quick hug and repeating on Alfred what she’d done to Bruce.

“Call me if you guys need anything. You have a good day at the office puddin’...or are you working on something else?”

Bruce just smiles teasingly, focusing only on the newspaper, letting Harley know that he was working on something. She bites her lip and jumps up and down. “Just one question...is it a new toy I can use?”

Bruce nods quickly, though that was all the answer she was going to get. “Ahhh! I can’t wait. Don’t I have the best husband?”

“Debatable, but yeah, you’ve got a good man there blondie”.

“Right back at you blondie. What are you going to do today?”

“I gotta clean the play room” she shouts back over her shoulder before moving up the stairs. “Dinah, that’s one room. How hard can it be?” Harleen asks. All she receives back is a chuckle.

Elise turns and smiles at Harleen. “I think your forget sugar, there are six kids running around here. Seven when little Harleen is over”.

“Ohh….right”.

**_Church of Blackfire_ **

James sat alone, praying to himself before an effigy carved out of the stone wall of the sewers. Candles were strewn about, illuminating it in the stygian darkness. It was him of course, as there was no other God his followers held before him.

“You are not the first to pray to yourself my Lord” Deacon Blackfire had told him. “Even in the heathen tales we find echoes of this practice. Odin sacrificed himself upon the world tree, an offering to himself. Osiris made sacrifices to himself, and even your predecessor, Jesus Christ, one figure in the trinity, prayed to the father. You are simply continuing that tradition”.

James didn’t know what to make of all this, and he wasn’t even sure of why he was praying at that moment. He didn’t know what praying really was. 

All he knew was that his followers watched him do it intently, and listened to him whenever he finished. Usually it was a command to get him something, and whatever it was was brought quickly. 

In this land of gloom and filth, a king and his kingdom had been born.

“Hello my son”.

He moves, breaking from his prayer to turn towards his mother. She was wearing resplendent dark robes, gilded in gold crust along the edges. How they came into possession of such fabrics, he had no idea. Scavengers went to the surface, and they brought their treasures back down.

“Mother. I am hungry. Have them bring me something to eat”.

“Yes lord” she says with a smile while offering him her hand. “Deacon Blackfire, your servant, has asked if he can speak with you. Do you think you can oblige him?”. She turns to two bums who had been loitering around, waiting for a command from their saviour. “You! Bring him something to eat” she snaps imperiously.

It was out of his mind now, and all that remained was for him to wait his sustenance. But he was left to wonder at his mother’s question. He would say yes, as he usually did. Most of what the ragged old man said to him was strange and confusing, but he sometimes got a gift out of it. ‘Maybe this’ll be one of those times’ he thinks excitedly, nodding up at his mother.

“Well then, my little prince, let’s go see your step father”.

“Mother, I want to go above”.

“We can’t yet my son…” she says, suddenly going pale. “We...we are not ready. If we do, the beast….she is there, waiting. You will destroy her, but in time”.

“I’m not afraid of her. Deacon already said I’d win! I’m God”.

“Yes sweetie, yes but you are are still growing. Let her be beaten in all of your strength my dove of peace”.

“Hmmmph..”.

“I know you hate it down here. This is no kingdom for a lord of the light, but you must be patient”.

“I’m god! Don’t tell me what to do!” he shouts out angrily, though he doesn’t release his grip on her hand. She balks, his outbursts, especially at her, having become much more common as of late. “Yes my lord...I beg your pardon. I only wish to protect you”.

“Ohh ye of little faith” Blackfire says, having approached the mother and son as they were coming to him. “My lord, what an honorable morning it is to be in your presence” the man says, bowing deeply.

“How do we even know if it’s morning?”

The man arches an eyebrow in curiosity, not understanding what the little boy was driving at. “There’s no sun dummy”.

“Ahh! Yes. So astute. Of course you are correct, and I am mistaken my lord. But, onto more important matters. You say that it is time for us to leave the underhell?”

“Yes! It stinks here”.

A small crowd was assembling in the atrium before them, hanging on the words of their prophet and their god. Blackfire falls to his knees and grasps the boy’s shoulders tightly. “My word...it’s true”.

“What is husband?” Barbara asks the man.

He looks up at her with wild eyes, turning to the congregation he had led beneath the streets so many years ago. “Brothers and sisters! The time is upon us!” he shouts, making them gasp in excitement. 

“Six years ago...we heard the thunder of the heathens as their armies battered against one another. We did not know at the time which one was victorious, though it has become increasingly clear that the House of Wayne triumphed over those false gods who ruled above!”

He stretches his hands out and brings them together in a loud clap, falling to his knees before James. Barbara meanwhile, moves up behind the boy, eager for her own share in the glory to come from one of her husband’s visions.

“We saw that tower fall, the greatest strike to man’s hubris since the tower of Babel! Wayne! Ohh that dreaded, dreaded name! The heathen warlord! The infidel who rules over this city as its king, without the blessing of our lord!” he gestures back at James who was now more intrigued by the servant approaching him with a greasy McDonalds bag. 

He takes it without offering even a thank you, and opens it, eyes widening as he sees the burger and fries being provided to him. He digs in sloppily, slamming a fistful of fries into his mouth and chewing with it open. Nobody rebukes him. Who among them could dare lecture god after all? Especially on something as mundane as eating habits.

“Not only that, but the number of dark guardians in the night, gargoyles has increased. They lull the people in a false sense of safety and then? They feast upon their flesh. But now...now the tower has been rebuilt as prophesied in a dream!”

He slams his staff down against the concrete walkway and smiles. 

“Our day! Our revelation is coming! An angel thus said to me, “when the tower rises a second time, piercing the underside of your lord’s spirit in heaven, you shall strike. The tower shall fall twice, but will not rise thrice, and your king shall sit on the throne of New Eden!”

He turns to the boy and falls at his feet, bowing in a supplicantary fashion. “And our lord’s words confirm it! We shall make ourselves ready for war. A merciless quick war in which we shall cleanse the infidels from our streets, piece by piece. A New Eden is upon us and we must ready ourselves! Blessed be! Blessed be!” he says, causing the followers, which number well into the thousand crammed in these abandoned tunnels beneath Gotham

They all cheer, breaking out into an almost orgiastic shout that only increases in tempo and volume. James however, was above it all. The worship of Blackfire, the screaming of the crowds or the cooing of his mother.

All he was focused on was that they were going above ground now. 

He’d gotten his way.

**_Kane Memorial Catholic School_ **

Barbara was leaning against the lockers right outside of Jason’s class, waiting for him to get out. She cut her own English to do so, not really needing to be in the class to ace it anyway.

‘Pfft, already read Of Mice and Men and all their other bullshit novels last year’ she thinks to herself, knowing that she could probably write a dissertation on each of them if she wanted to. The issue was? She didn’t want to. This was all a waste. A superficial facade. A glorified baby sitting service.

She moves her foot up, placing the heel of her shoe back against the steel locker lining the walls. She wishes she had time to sneak out for a cigarette, but she knows she’d most likely get caught with Sister Sarah roaming around.

As it was she was talking a risk, waiting outside of Father Blood’s history class. She figured it wasn’t too much of a big deal though. The bell would ring in five minutes after all. 

“Pfft, Father Jason Blood. What a name for a priest. Figures that loser is your favorite teacher Jason. Goody two shoes”.

She absolutely loathed this school, and especially the uniform they made her wear. The skirt went practically down past her knees, and it felt suffocating. All of it felt suffocating. ‘Just wait for Jason. It’ll be fine’ she thinks, calming herself.

The bell rings, and the sounds of chairs scraping up against the floor can be heard everywhere as the juniors try to pile out of their classrooms, just the same as in every public school across America. ‘Couldn’t go to public school. Nana INSISTED that we go here’ she thinks, though she holds no malice towards her grandmother.

_“I want ya to get some morals young lady. Besides, if you’re good now you can be bad later when you have more money and choices”._

She laughs aloud, smiling at how here Nana was one of the only ones she could really just let loose to when talking to. 

“Don’t worry Father Blood. All taken care of” Jason says, moving out of the room naturally at the tail end of the pack, the tall priest with the severe expression and grey streaks around the hair at his temple. 

“Good. Very good. Kane memorial is counting on you this weekend, and I’d hate to have you miss the game because of a homework oversight” the man teases, knowing that Jason wouldn’t ever slack on school work. Barbara just rolls her eyes, exhaling deeply without moving. 

Father Blood notices her and the slight smile fades. “Miss Wayne”.

“It’s Gordon-Wayne”.

“Very well. Miss GORDON-Wayne” the man says, emphasizing the change in his greeting. “What are you doing here? I happen to know that your english course with Sister Penelope is halfway across the school. There is no way you could be here now if you didn’t skip her class as she doesn’t let you leave early after the last…” he stops to mentally count. “Eight incidents”. 

She just smirks, loving her ability to flaunt authority unscathed. Maybe it was because of her last name. She didn’t know, and she didn’t care. “I’ve got super speed. Dontcha’ know that I’m the Flash?” she asks jokingly, referencing one of the members of the Justice League.

“Uhh well, it was an interesting lecture Father Blood. I’m sure it’ll come in handy on the finals” Jason says, desperate to break the tension. “Anyways, better get to lunch. Come on Barbara!” he says, pulling the girl by her arm away from the teacher.

“Get some rest Jason. The game!” the priest calls out as they move down the hall.

“Will do padre! Will do!” he shouts back, watching as the man slowly moves back into his classroom.

“God, he’s such a creep. And you’re a dork for even talking to him” Barbara teases, feeling her smile fall as she looks at the boy. “What?”

“Do you have to pick a fight everywhere you go?” he asks angrily.

“Jason...I...I wasn’t picking a fight honest. Just poking fun. The guy’s an ass. That’s all” she says, not liking how he was angry with her. The boy just rolls his eyes and moves ahead of her. “Whatever…”.

She was about to lose him in the hallway, but her...unique training made that almost impossible. “Hey! Hey! Wait wait...is this about what happened last night?” she asks, already upset if that was the case.

“Ohh gee, what gave it away? Barbara...you…” he says before remembering that others were around. “It just wasn’t right. I keep seeing things in you. Things that aren’t right. What’s eating you up so bad?” he asks, turning and stopping her in front of a locker. His hands go to her shoulders in a rare breach of school etiquette, and for a minute she feels more than comfortable, especially when she gets to look into his eyes.

She averts them though, not wanting him to see the truth in them. Not yet. Not when she was so afraid of what he might find there.

“Talk to me Barbara. We’re stronger together. Remember?”

She knew that. She felt that in her very core. Every night when they went out there, they had each other’s back. It was like...well, she had no other comparison other than Harley and Bruce. “Jason...I...I just keep thinking…”.

“About what?”

“My dad...Barbara. She’s still out there”.

He sighs and nods, rubbing her gently in a way that makes her heartbeat go even quicker than before. ‘How does he not know what he’s doing to me?’

“Barbara...I know. But, you might never find her. You just might not. You’ve gotta accept that”.

“I can’t. She has to pay for what she did!” she whispers harshly. “And we haven’t tried. Not really. I can find her. I know it!”.

“And what if you do huh? That’s what I’m worried about. What’ll happen when you do” he retorts. “I...dammit, I’ll do what I have to. Alright? I thought you’d support me. Be on my side” she accuses him petulantly. 

“I am on your side but I’m not willing to lose you over her!” he seethes. “She’s not worth it Barbara. She’s not even worth a thought of yours anymore. Hate her, spit on her image and let it go. She’ll get hers”.

“Don’t tell me you believe all this God bullshit they pour into us every day” she says, trying to lighten the situation with a smirk. “Yeah. I do. I have to. Because, newsflash Barbara. It can’t only be us. There’s more. Right and wrong exist, and it comes from more than just us…”.

She loved that about him. 

His passion. His steadfast conviction. Strength. They were all qualities she herself felt she lacked, or at least in what he and Bruce and the rest might consider the “right way”. She loved them, but she was starting to think they were wrong. About everything.

She looks away and nods, not wanting to keep fighting and knowing that if she said anymore of what she was feeling it would be a fight as Jason tried to talk her down. Like always. “I’m sorry”.

“It’s alright” he says, a devil may care smile plastered across his lips. 

She places her own hand on his shoulder and rubs him back, suddenly feeling strange. “Hey um...after school, let’s go to the movies. Just us two. My treat”. She didn’t know why she couldn’t just tell him, or why she felt bashful in nothing else besides this issue, but she did.

Most everyone saw him as just her brother, but anyone who said anything along those lines was quickly corrected by Barbara, either by words or a fist.

They may have shared a last name, but the last thing she wanted Jason to be was her brother. 

His smile falls, and he blushes, embarrassment in his eyes and his face turned away.

“What’s wrong?”

“I would love to Barbara but...I kind of forgot to tell you something. Something you might be mad about”.

“What is it?”

“I kind of have a date tonight” he says. “That’s not the bothering part but...who it’s with might be”.

He had no clue. That indeed was the bothering part for Barbara. Whoever this girl was was irrelevant to her. ‘No! No you don’t!’.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were interested in someone?” she practically hisses. “Woah calm down Barb. Just...well, it slipped...no. I can’t lie. I didn’t want you to get mad, like you are now”.

“Who is sh…”.

“Hi Jason”.

The young man turns to see Jenny Cobblepot right behind him, a cute smile on her face and her dark, raven black hair tied in a neat bun at the back of her head. Barbara wanted to rush forward and scratch her eyes out only because of her existence, but she’d be utterly enraged if this was the girl Jason was going out with. 

He scratches the back of his head and turns, a bright smile on his face. “Heya Jenny. How are you today?”

“I’m good. Hello Barbara” the girl says somewhat less honestly. Barbara just mumbles back a greeting, only wanting to be polite for Jason’s sake. She loathed Jenny Cobblepot, not only for their elementary school days spats either. No. She hated her for her distinguished British accent that Barbara was sure she was faking, she hated her for a naturally gorgeous body that had all the right things to stoke guy’s imaginations and inner fires, while she who trained like an Amazon wasn’t even noticed by the one guy she wanted.

She knew she was pretty, and she knew that she could be described as hot, but standing next to Jenny? 

She knew it wasn’t even competitive. 

Jenny meanwhile turns back to Jason, cutely smiling and turning her head. “Just wanted to make sure you and I were still on for tonight?”

“Yeah totally Jenny”.

“Awesome. I’m super excited Jason”. She leans in and quickly pecks him on the cheek, though for the very first time in her life Barbara feels like she wanted to rush off an report an infraction of the rules. ‘She kissed him waaaay too close to the mouth’.

“Bye Jason”.

And with that, Jenny walks away smiling, leaving a dopily smiling Jason to get a good luck at her, the young man obviously enjoying the way she walked away. 

Jason reaches up and rubs his cheek, “Bye Jenny. Have a good day”.

Barbara was fuming, and she wanted to scream at the top of her lungs but the last thing that would do was get her closer to Jason in the way she wanted. Images of her turning the boy and kissing him directly on the lips in such a fiery passion that he’d forget Jenny Cobblepot for good. 

She didn’t do that either.

“So..you’re going out with Jenny Cobblepot”.

“Yeah. Hope that’s alright”.

It was anything but “alright” in Barbara’s book. Still, she smiles, a fake smile. “Sure. Yeah it’s fine. Pfft. You think I’d be mad about that? Nah. Go ahead. Go have some fun. Get some if you can” she says, mentally vowing to punch her teeth out if she even thought about putting her hands on Jason in such a way.

“I’m actually surprised. You’re taking this pretty well” he says, saddling up beside her as they move towards the lunch room. “Why would I be mad?”

“Well, you never liked her much…”.

“I don’t. But hey...whatever. You’re too important to me to get angry at over something stupid like that. Let’s just go to lunch”.

She needed to play this smart. 

‘But how? Smart is Jason’s thing, not mine. What am I gonna do?’


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might take a little break guys. Just warning you if there isn't another chapter up tommorrow that that's what I did but most likely I'll have another chapter up tommorrow. I want you guys to cuddle up with your families on Christmas morning, but Christmas Eve I wanna make sure you've got enough to read on these cold, wintery nights.

**_?????????_ **

“And what do you think?”

They two robed figures move about the hallways easily, clustered close together as they whisper in quick tones. You couldn’t see their faces, and could only tell that they were men from the general shape of their bodies that was outlined through their robes.

“It does not matter what I think, it only matters what I know” the other says, turning them into a large room to their right. Within this room was a large statue that stretched upwards to the ceiling. It was of a knight, and grasped within his hands was a flaming sword.

“Perhaps the church in Rome…”.

“Bah” the other man says dismissively. 

  
“The church in Rome is weak, indolent and corrupt. It is focused only on worldly things. It’s forgotten its roots. Its purpose. Its mission”.

“True, very true, but still, their resources are so great. Would not enlisting them gain us valuable time?”

The other man doesn’t answer as they move to stand before the base of the statute, admiring how beautiful the piece of art actually was. It showed a knight in all his resplendent glory, though none of the garnish that came with his peers.

His robe was torn and tattered, his armor disjointed and broken in some places, yet he continued on, raising a sword which burned with holy fire over his head, ready to bring it down and crush his enemies who dared stand against him, and by extension the lord.

The one who was against speaking to the Vatican turns and smiles, a light smile that could even be seen under his hood. 

“And he directed the people to sit on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. The people ate and were all satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over”.

The other man nods, bowing to his gospel inspired wisdom. “Matthew 14: 19-20”.

He reaches out and places a hand on the man’s shoulder while nodding. “We must keep the faith brother and rely not upon the weight of shiftless silver and faux gold. We must trust our God to deliver from us the bounty we need from what he has given us”.

“Of course. Of course. Forgive me. I’ve forgotten”.

The man nods and sighs, turning back up to the statue. “It is easy to forget in Gotham. Especially now in these dark days. But, it is time for us to rise. The ancient protectors of this city, who fought for its flesh and its soul at the same time. We have made mistakes, but we have always struggled to discern the will of the lord. Never forget that at least my friend”.

The man nods and reaches up to undo his hood, pushing it back over his head. Jason Blood, was much more at ease, though the discomfort would not fully desert him. “Grandmaster….”.

“For one who has lived so long, you do show me an awful lot of deference” the other man says, repeating the action as he lowers his own hood to reveal a wizened youthful face. “Tell me Jason. What is it that truly bothers you? Is it the boy?”

The man nods and turns, pacing a bit. “I...I was taken in by you grandmaster. When nobody else would, you fought to understand and trusted me. You have me a purpose and while I am not free of my curse, I am free of my sin. After centuries. I hate to doubt you”

The grandmaster nods, allowing the man to go on on while only adding one little side comment. “And yet, you must question me on whatever it is you must. Ask the question Jason. The lord put it in your heart for a reason”.

The priest stops and looks at him, nodding. “The boy…”.

“Ahh.. I had guessed that it would be something involving young Mr. Todd”.

“This life...it’s full of...sacrifice and pain. The rewards are few and far between. He is a good man. I sense it in his spirit. The one who dwells inside of me is restless whenever I come into contact with him which, trust me, is a good sign. But...why must we bring him into our order?”

“You are acting as if he does not have a choice” the grandmaster says. “We are merely going to offer him the option of joining our order. To see if he can take up the banner Saint Dumas put down so many centuries ago. Surely you understand that this is not happening for a time yet? After all, he has other responsibilities at this point. Like the baseball game this Saturday”.

Jason found it comforting that the man could be jocular and merry, something that took his mind off of the immensity of the situation before them.

“I know he will say yes”.

“Hmm?”

“I know that when Jason is asked, he will say yes. That poses to me a moral/philosophical question. Are we still giving him a choice, when offering the mere mention of the opportunity will prompt him to accept? Or are we simply acting arbiters of the Lord’s plan?”

“Both” the grandmaster yes.

“God has ordained that Jason will ascend to this challenge, and yet..Jason’s heart will desire that he does so as well”.

“Do we offer him assistance? For what is coming now?”

“No, no. We will only watch from the shadows. We must see what he and his family shall do to face these challenges. But...if it gets out of hand…”.

Jason nods, knowing that he would be the one to salvage the situation. At the wave of his hands, the legions of candles that dot the room ignite into brutal and harsh flames which jet up, revealing everything within the room in a much better way than the few candles that were lit had done before.

His shadow though, his shadow was of most interest though the grandmaster didn’t seem to think so.

His shadow was much larger, and had horns.

It laughs cruelly, though Jason only looks down and closes his eyes in shame. “If it comes to it grandmaster, I will burn them all to ash”.

**_Arkham Asylum, Warden’s Office_ **

“Uggghhh….”.

“Something the matter Warden?”

Harleen looks up to see her chief of security, the promoted Doyle, standing in her door. “Ohh, nothing Doyle. Nothing just...tired and moaning about it I guess”.

The man nods, his own smile falling off of his face.

“We uhh...we got a problem in Max”.

“What now? Is it an emergency?”

He shakes his head to the negative. “No, no. Nothing like that. Just….well, they’re bringing in another inmate. And this one seems to have riled them all up”.

She nods and moves to her feet, grasping her clipboard and the keys to her office. She never left the office without them after the Joker’s break in six years ago. As she leans over her desk she stops, smiling at the myriad of pictures atop it. ‘My babies’. She can’t help but run her finger over one of the pictures in which she had Barbara and Jason holding Martha and Mary, smiling up at the camera for her. 

She pushes these joyous memories to the side for a moment and moves to the door, knowing that whatever the situation was it would be best if it was handled quickly. “Alright Doyle. Let’s get going”.

She steps out of her office and locks the door, following the man down the hall and past the wards that lined their path. When she had assumed the position of Warden, her first act was to move her office closer to the medical wards where they were more easily accessible to her. 

She was still a doctor, through and through.

“Any info you can give me on this new prisoner?”

“Yeah. He’s very quiet but he’s got this...way about him that just scares people. Name’s Jonathan Crane. Used to be a doctor or something. ‘Till he got caught hacking up one of his patients and screaming about a scarecrow”.

They enter the maximum security wing, though it was no quick an easy task to get in. Numerous blast proof doors followed up by a guard checkpoint with the best armed guards she had ever seen.

‘All thanks to Wayne Enterprises’ she thinks with a smile, wondering if Bruce would want to ‘rev up his Harley’ tonight. ‘I do have that sexy nightie I’ve been waiting to put into use’.

“Ahh so another extreme personality. Just what Arkham needed”.

“You don’t...I mean, you really don’t need to be down her Warden” Doyle says. Harleen just quirks an eyebrow in response. “Then why did you call me down here?”

“I just...I figured you’d want to know, but I really would rather you just be a normal Warden you know?”

“What, like Sharpe?” she laughs, suppressing the wince she had at hearing the harsh clang of the door slamming shut behind her. It locked into place, sealing everyone in. ‘Like a tomb’ she thinks, shivering to herself. 

“Nah, you’re prettier than Sharpe was but...I don’t know”.

“This is about Joker isn’t it?”  
  


“It always is in Gotham”.

She reaches out and places a hand on the man’s shoulders, loving the fact that he was so concerned. She sees, for a quick moment, him and Joan and Jerry, back up on those posts, burning while the man’s sick and ominous laughter cascades over her.

She shakes the thought away. “I’m a big girl Doyle. I can handle myself. You just worry about yourself. You’ve been getting fat”. She pokes the man in the belly, him indeed having put on a few pounds since taking the much cozier, less physical position. “Hey...that ain’t fair”. 

“Fair’s are for the countryside” she teases. “Now. Let’s go”.

In maximum security, they went all out. It was just one long hallway buried underground, with feet of concrete surrounding it. There was really no way out for anyone in here. It was only through the door that could only be opened providing the computer system had two key cards inserted on opposite ends. Even if the prisoners escaped through the four inch thick steel doors, they’d be trapped.

‘And left to kill each other’ she thinks, finding herself hating that the thought didn’t bother her so much anymore.

She passes by the doors, each having a small set of bars that allowed communication with those passing by. Each inmate was rattled, and pressing against the bars to either scream or hurl insults at whoever passed. 

‘Woah, they really are worked up’ she says to herself mentally, passing by one cell she certainly didn’t want to at that moment.

The man slams himself against the bars, laughing maniacally. “OHHH doctor Quinzel! It’s been so long since you came down here for a visit! Missing little ole’ me?”

“Doe”.

“Ahh can’t we be on a bit more friendly terms Harley? I mean...who knows me better than you?” he says with a wicked gleam in his eye. That familiar chill goes right up her spine as she remembers their confrontation on the roof top six years ago.

‘He knows who you are but why hasn’t he done anything with it?’

It was true. Joker hadn’t done much for six years except sit in his cell and slowly descend into madness, which was easily achieved considering his already very fragile mental state. What she wasn’t ready for was how emaciated he would grow in his incarceration. 

He was practically skin and bones. From his records she had read that he’d already went on eight separate food strikes, prompting them to force feed him through an iv tube.

“But don’t you worry about me! I’m still your best friend, even if you never call and never write” he continues on with a frown. “But anywho, new guy huh? Interesting fellow. Seems kind of...hmm...rabid? Is he rabid?” he fake gasps. “Should I be worried about fleas?”

“The only thing you need to focus on is how to get better. Nothing more, nothing less”.

“Ohh doc...we both know that that isn’t going to happen. But go and check up on the new guy. He’s probably just dying to meet you!”.

Joker screams in a peel of laughter, falling back into the dark confines of his cell. Harleen tries to block it out but...something about the way he spoke. It was odd to say the least.

She continues on and sees just how disturbed some of the other inmates were in here, and realizes that whoever had come in here had indeed rattled them. The guards were uneasy themselves, and there was this strange lingering smell of...almonds?

She couldn’t quite understand it, though each cell she passed gave her more and more cause for concern. “Doyle...I want you to call in a medical team. Something...somethings not right here”.

“Yeah...sure….doc...whoah...everything is...weird”.

The man was holding his hands out in front of his face, trying to see them but it was clear he wasn’t seeing what was usually there.

“We...we need to open the door” he says, looking at the last cell which was the only one from which a massive amount of noise was not coming from. The inmates had only gotten louder, and the smell...it was much more intense.

“No Doyle...don’t...Something is wrong”.

She tries to stop him and she takes a step forward to do so but it feels as if her whole body is stuck in sludge. She didn’t know what was going on, and she felt….scared.

“No, no...if I open it, he’ll make it better. He promised” the man says as he takes the key from his key ring. “Don’t you hear him? He has a horrible fucking voice. If we don’t listen, he’ll rip us apart”.

Harley was on her knees now with her hands on her ears. She couldn’t “hear” anything, except a dark and ringing tone. Everything around her was changing and swirling and it looked like the walls of the super max were...melting?  
  


She saw the calendar that one of the guards had put above his station slowly start sliding down the wall. She manages to get to her feet, leaning a palm against a nearby desk to steady herself. “HEHEHEHEH you don’t look so good warden! Paging Doctor Quinzel! Paging Doctor Quinzel! This is your physician! It appears you have a case of ligma!” the Joker shouts before descending into even more frenzied laughter.

She couldn’t focus, but if she could she’d find it odd that the Joker was the only one who seemed unaffected by what she was sure was gas now.

She looks towards the front of the hall and sees one of the guards scratching rapidly at his face. “OHH GOD! OHH GOD MY EYES! THEY’RE IN MY EYES!”

Doyle had turned the key in the lock and released the mechanism, slowly opening the door. He moves back into the dark maw that was before him, and moves to his knees. “You see? I did what you wanted. You...you wont hurt us right?”

A hand reaches out rapidly, and wraps around the man’s throat before lifting him up and throwing him back against the wall as if he weighed no more than a paperclip.

“Mrs. Wayne? Listen, you don’t know me but trust me, you gotta get up”.

  
“Huh?” 

She knew she heard that voice, but she couldn’t see anyone around her, too focused as she was on the hulking creature that was slowly pulling itself through the open door. It’s hands were splayed out on either side of the steel, displaying its grizzled and fleshy digits.

“Get up! Trust me. You’re a badass normally but right now? He’s screwing with you. You’re not on top of your game”.

“HMMM are you the famous Doctor Wayne?”

The voice was horror incarnate, deep and cruel without any hint of mercy or humanity within it. The creature’s face reveals itself to her as the man, or...whatever he was that was thrown in the cell, smiles at her. 

His face, if she could even consider it a face as she wasn’t sure. No. It was….leathery? A mask. She was too horrified to place it properly and she throws her back against the desk, trying to escape it, but unable to move.

The creature was tall and spindly, and it had...hay sticking out from it at all sorts of odd angles. It’s mouth seemed to be nothing more than a black hole with stitches of burlap sack across it, though wet strands of bloody red meat hung out of the sharp teeth that belonged more on a shark than whatever this thing was.

It’s nose was flat, almost as if it had sliced off with a knife, and it’s cheeks carried a deathly pallor that spoke of rot and decay. It’s eyes were the worst though. Balls of flaming hellfire that seemed to bore into her very soul.

She kicks at the floor, wanting to get away and forgetting the desk behind her that hinders her movement. The creature doesn’t care and simply rushes forward to wrap that cruel fingers around her ankle and pull her towards it.

“Hmm...tell me, what do you fear? Ohh you’re most likely beginning to get a taste of what you REALLY fear. Don’t tell me. Don’t spoil it. These are secrets best left to oneself”.

  
He releases her, and stands, his back hunched as he casts a glance up and down the hall, turning his head this way and that. “Hmmm...what an interesting place. High on security but...hehe...you didn’t check all my pockets. A mistake that may prove...fatal”.

Without any more acknowledgement towards the blonde woman who was cowering and crying on her rear end, trying to not see what was going on around her. “This isn’t real! This isn’t real!” she sobs, seeing the room twisted into a hellscape with horrors she could scarcely imagine surrounding her. 

The creatures moves on though, checking every cell by peaking into it, chuckling darkly at the fear he was causing.

“Amateurs” he smirks to himself, his visage a gnarled evil smile. 

“Yooohooo!” Joker calls out from down the line, waving his hand up and down through the bars. “You” the Scarecrow says, rushing forward. “How are you not affected by toxin?”

He was more intrigued than anything else, and he was eager to learn how to rectify this.

The white skinned man just smiles and nods. “Ohh my bosom buddy. You’re gonna need to learn something about me” the replies, wrapping his fingers about the bars. “I’m already living my worst nightmare...and I find it utterly hilarious!”.

“Hmmm...interesting”.

“What would really be interesting?” Joker entices, hoping that the man will take the bate. “Flipping that emergency switch over by the wall. Opens all these pesky little doors. Think about it. Whatever you did in here” the man stops to sniff the air. “Probably a time release gas of some sort huh? Yeah that has to be it. You’re a guy who has style, pizazz! That’ll be it”.

“Anyways, yeah, that switch over there opens up all our doors, you know in case of a fire or something. If you wanna spread more of this delicious fear toxin, you’ll want to release all of them and let them run rampant in the Asylum!”.

The Scarecrow was definitely intrigued, and without much thought he walks over and flips the switch, stepping over the guard who had taken his pistol from his belt and shot himself in his fear.

Joker just chuckles to himself, gleeful at having a chance to get out and about.

The doors all open, an alarm going off and adding to the quickly developing horror as red flashing lights join the queue. As soon as a crack is detected, the horrified inmates rush out like cattle, barreling past one another and even turning on anybody unfortunate enough to be in their way. 

One moves towards Harleen, and reaches down to grab her. She screams out in horror and pain as his nails dig into her shoulders, drawing blood. As quickly as it comes though, the pain disappears, and so does the body leering above her. Though...another shadow takes its place.

Joker tosses the dead man’s body away, not exactly caring for how he had touched the woman he so desperately desired.

“Heh, I guess this hero stuff isn’t too hard!” he jokes, moving down to force her to look into his eyes. She was still afraid, and even more horrified at his smiling visage that now greeted her. 

“You! I need your assistance to open the main door” Scarecrow shouts, turning back at the clown that he now undoubtedly saw as an accomplice. Some of the inmates advance on him, but with a frightful roar and a slash across the air with his clawed hands, they quickly see the wisdom of walking away.

Joker rolls his eyes and smiles. “He’s a pushy one Doc” he teases, not seeing what Harleen was undoubtedly seeing in her mind.

The Joker’s face was decayed and destroyed, practically a corpse. Maggots rolled and coiled with the right eye socket where no eye was left.   
  
“But that’s okay. I’m not ready for our little date yet. I gotta do some pullups and get some green before wooing you. High class society lady like yourself”.   
  
He releases his hold on her chin and thrusts her back so that her head hits upon the desk. He had done it a lot harder than he’d wanted to, and the impact mixed with the disorientation caused by the gas knocked Harleen out, and her unconscious body slumps to the ground.

“Ooopsie. Wanted to leave the kinky stuff for later”.

“CLOWN!”

“Coming, coming tall, dark and gruesome. I just had some unfinished business to set up”.

Joker walks over towards the main entrance and leans down to pick up the data card from the guard who had a huge hole in the back of his own head now, courtesy of his own pistol.

The crowd that developed, all fearful and confused but most of all enraged, waited for the two figures to release them, having at least a vague sense for what was going on.

Their fear would make them unstoppable.

Joker slips his card in at the same time as Scarecrow does on the opposite end. The light flashes red, then yellow before finally settling on green.

Without any further delay, the blast door begins to open, allowing the inmates a clear way through into the asylum. They run like hell was on their tail, breaking anything in their way and smashing into one another as the toxin spills out as well, a veritable cloud of fear that acts almost like a mind of his own. 

  
Scarecrow and Joker wait until all the others have exited before ascending the stairs themselves. Joker couldn’t help but laugh, the cool air of Arkham so different from the stale moistness of below. “So...what’s your plan after this?”

“I’m here on my own mission. Something you wouldn’t understand”.

“I get it! I get it. We’re not close friends like I thought we might be” Joker says with a frown. “But that’s alright. I’ll get over it. Now that I’m free I’m gonna go and find a long lost bosom buddy of mine! My son!”.

“You have a son?” the Scarecrow asks skeptically.

“Yeah. What’s so strange about that? I’m a clown and you’re a giant scarecrow creature thingy with a penchant for using toxins and that’s the weird thing to you?”

“I’m just shocked any woman would lay with you, let alone procreate” the creature says before it begins to lumber away.

“You’re a big fat meanie!” Joker shouts before smiling and moving off in the direction of the juvenile wing. “Ohh Dickie boy. It’s been years! I can’t wait to see how you’ve grown up. So sorry I haven’t been able to get you a birthday present but don’t worry my boy”.

He licks his lips in utter pleasure, not at the plan he had but at the opportunities that were now presenting themselves. The horror he could inflict on this city and especially the Wayne family.

“Your mommy and I are going to make it allll up to”.

**_The Batcave_ **

He sat at the computer, going over the different bulletins and alerts he was receiving. None of it was calming, but it was something that needed to be done.

Ever since he’d started his crusade in Gotham, he never saw it moving out past the city limits. But, it seemed that the world outside of Gotham was slowly beginning to encroach upon him, leaving him no choice but to confront it.

He reaches forward and presses play on a news bulletin that was straight from the United Kingdom. The reporter begins to speak. “In other news, troubling news from Croatia this morning as unrest takes over the country. With the end of their election, Croatians overwhelmingly voted UFC party chairman Stepjan Ryadlov, who has been quite a controversial figure. Ryadlov has promised to pull Croatia out of any trade agreements with its neighbors and the European Union, citing so called disparities and trade deficits that hindered Croatian independence. Members of his party were overwhelmingly voted into parliament as well. Many of Croatia’s neighbors saw this as an implied military threat, regardless of Ryadlov’s promise that he had no military designs in the Balkans. Wonder Woman, of the Justice League, was dispatched as part of a “League Oversight Committee”, as it is called by Superman in order to quell the unrest”.

Bruce feels his eyes narrow, having a sense for what was to come next.

“Following the Amazonian princess’ arrival, Ryadlov and his party were ousted, and his opponent, Josip Broz of the BRPSP was reinstated. Ryadlov and his supporters took to the streets to protest what they see as a coup enforced by metahuman interlopers at the beck and call of the United Nations. When the protests turned violent, the few loyalists left within the Croatian army opened fire, killing over forty men, women and children”.

“Dammit” Bruce says to himself.

“Following this, a small scale civil war has broken out within the country, a war in which Wonder Woman is heavily involved in. International critics say that she is using force to keep an unpopular, though politically expedient leader, within Croatia, while supporters say that the UFC party is authoritarian, and it’s election illegitimate. Superman had this to say”.

The scene pans away to Superman, speaking before the United Nations, dressed as he was in his red cape and blue suit.

“We need to keep order and peace. More than anything else, this is what matters in these troubled times. The Balkans have long served as a sense of friction between nearby powers seeking to exert influence and power there. Simply put? We can’t allow any one madman to have power simply because enough people are willing to say they will follow him”.

Bruce can’t help but feel a sense of irony about that, especially when he considered who Superman was and how he had been operating as of late.

“The civil war continues, though the opposition party lacks a leader. New reports coming in today confirm that Diana, also known as Wonder Woman, cornered President Ryadlov and killed him while engaged in a firefight. The United Nations has already stepped in to clear her of any wrong doing due to the fact that President Broz had handed down a death sentence in absentia, charging Stepjan Ryadlov with high treason and conspiracy to commit….”.

The news cast is interrupted by an alarm which flashes brazenly only to the screen, horrifying Bruce with what it meant. “No”.

He looks up the particulars and sees that the alarm was coming from Arkham Asylum, upon which he had placed numerous separate monitoring devices to ensure the safety of his wife. 

He pulls up her vitals and sees that they are spiking in a myriad of ways. Her adrenaline was high and her heart rate? Dangerously so.

Whatever was happening at Arkham, it was enough to kill her with fear.

He rushes into action, slipping into his suit with practiced ease while he hears the sound of rushing feet down the stairway. Dinah had also gotten the alert, being tuned into what was going on in Gotham via her smartphone.

She was already dressed in her boots and fishnets, though she was trying to zip up her corset with one hand on the run, her gloves and jacket in her free hand. She manages to zip it up just as she reaches the bottom of the stairs.   
  
“Batman! What’s going on?” she asks while swinging her coat over her shoulders and slipping into it. Bruce was dressed in his batsuit just as quickly, snapping on his utility belt and rushing at the batmobile.

“Harley is in trouble. We need to get to Arkham”.

“Shit let’s go. Should we tell the Robins?”

She jumps into the passenger seat just as quickly as she was capable, while Bruce engages the engine and starts to rocket the vehicle out of the cave. “No time. We need to get there. Now!”

He checks the batcomputer that he had built into the car, continuing to monitor his wife’s vitals which were spiking dramatically.

“Hold on Harleen” he says, hoping against hope that he’d make it in time.

**_Arkham…..?????_ **

She awoke with a start and makes to stand just as quickly, dizzy as she was, knowing that she had to act decisively. “Come on Harleen…” she tells herself, breathing deeply. Her head was pounding, and she tried to come to terms with that too. 

“HARLEEN! Mnnnfff hnnggn mnnfnfnfn”

The first word of whoever it was that was speaking came in loud and clear but then the rest of it was mumbled. She begins to walk, in as straight a line as she can manage. “The...prisoners...they’re out. Be careful” she says aloud, picking up a baton that one of the guards had disposed of. 

She brings it up to look at it, and right before her eyes it seems to change into a baseball bat. “What the…?”

She turns the bat this way and that, looking at the bright red and black paint that had been etched upon its side. She takes a closer look and sees the three of diamonds on the side.

Her head doesn’t allow her much time to dwell as she continues on, trying to stay upright. When she opens her eyes again, she feels that she’s entered a whole other world. This one?   
  


It was a hall of mirrors. “What...what’s going on?” she screams out angrily, holding the bat up. “What are you doing to me?”

She begins to walk, though she’s unable to resist looking into the mirrors she passes. The first few are fine, and she sees nothing but her normal, rather pretty if she did say so herself, reflection. Just a mild mannered Warden of Arkham Asylum out for a stroll with a baseball bat.

It’s when she gets to the fourth that she has to stop.

Her reflection was completely different. Here she wore the strangest ensemble she’d ever seen. A red and black one piece that crisscrossed and changed colors as it went up her body. She wore bright white face paint, and a strange hat that covered up her hair, dangling ears with bells attached to top off the look.

The look of shock the reflection had on its face, undoubtedly stemming from her shock at seeing it, turns to a gleeful look of mirth, and the woman in the mirror sensuously leans against the frame. “Ehh, what’s up doc?” she teases.

Harleen was in shock. It was her, but not her. 

The woman reaches behind her and retracts a mallet which looked massive in size, and she leans on it for comfort.

“Who...who are you?”

“Who do I look like toots?”

“Me”.

  
“Aww ain’t you a smart one?”

Harleen shakes her head, trying to come back from the fact that she was communicating with a mirror. “I mean...why do you look like you do?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Mistah J likes how I look”.

“Who’s Mr. J…”.

“Hello Harley! I’m home!”

Another character cartoonishly steps onto the scene, scooting close to the woman who murrs and molds herself into his side. “Aww my puddin’!”

“Joker!” Harleen seethes, gripping the bat even harder at seeing the smirking visage of the man.

“Harley don’t….hnnggrnrh mmmnfff”.

There it was again. That muffled voice. It sounded like it was far off, but also like it was desperately close. 

“Did ya get me anything nice while ya was out?”  
  


“I always do my little gumdrop” Joker teases, giving the reflection Harley a slap on her pert rear. The woman blushes and laughs, while Harleen just feels a sense of disgust. “Want me to show it to ya?”

“Yes! Yes! Pweeeease Mr. J?” 

The Harley on the other side of the glass squeals in delight and pouts in equal measure, eager for the Joker’s attention. The man smiles back, reaching across the mirror to find something that was just out of frame.

“What the fuck are you doing with him?” Harleen seethes, confusing her facsimile.

“Why wouldn’t I be with him? He’s my puddn’!”

“Stop. Calling. Him. That!”

Joker pulls what appears to be a lazy Susan out and pushes it in front of Harley. “I’ve come to realize that the best gift you can get someone you love? The really best gift? Freedom. Freedom from problems, stress, responsibility! Soooo, that’s what I got you sweetie!”

The mirror Harley steps forward and lifts the metal cover off of the tray, squealing once more in delight and dropping it, allowing the metal to clatter loudly to the floor. Harleen was on the edge of her seat, horrified at what the Joker could’ve have possibly gotten this sick and twisted version of herself.

“What’s behind you” she breathes out, not able to see it as the two lewdly embracing figures continue their seductions against one another in front of her.

She was disgusted to watch Joker’s hands cling around her rear, moving up to cup her breasts in such a manner that she would only ever allow Bruce. In fact, she was shaking at the mere thought of anyone but Bruce touching her romantically, and yet here she was, forced to watch a pornogprahic view of herself with the one person she despised most in the world.

The Joker disengages from Harley only for a moment, seemingly noticing his audience for the first time. With a gleeful smile he begins to move away. “Ohh poo...we were so rude. Doing all that naughty stuff in front of our guest...and not even letting her see what brought it on”.

“Take a gander hot stuff. See what your life can be if you roll with a Clown!” he jokes, descending into laughter as he moves like a showman, presenting a prize.

Harley gasps in horror as she sees what was on the moving table, and her free hand goes to her mouth while hot tears make their way down her face.

On the tray were the decapitated heads of her family, all positioned with their very own plates and garnished freakishly, intent on horrifying anyone who saw them.

  
Barbara, Alfred, Jason, Dinah...she couldn’t go on, especially not with knowing that the heads of her two little girl’s would undoubtedly be there. Rage. 

Rage like she had never known.

The laughter was only the fuel that burned the fire within her like a thousand suns. It wasn’t the Joker’s laughter though. No. It was Harley’s. “HAHAHAHAH! That’s a good one puddin’. Head’s of the Wayne Family all put together! Too bad they couldn’t come up with a plan ta save themselves!”

Refusing to allow her even another word, Harleen brings the bat up and then brings it down on the glass, watching it shatter into a million pieces. That didn’t solve the issue though, as the laughter only intensified. 

  
Each broken shard of glass turned into yet another laughing Harley, her face and mouth close enough to see the mirth reflected on it.

She turns and sees nothing but mirrors, all filled with Harley and Joker, who’s laughter soon joined her own. “SHUT UP! I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!”

Each mirror revealed something else that would horrify her. Harley at an altar, blood dripping down the stairs from a dead priest as Joker holds her. Them at the hospital, holding a newborn with the same green hair and white skin of the Joker, sporting a horrifying and evil grin.

It was a veritable scrap book of horror, twisted memories that she shared with Bruce replaced and warped by the Joker’s presence. She swings the bat out wildly, bringing it down again and again on the glass and splintering it, repeating the effect of magnifying her opposite’s laughter.

“Don’t you see Harley” Joker’s voice calls out ethereally above it all, taunting her. “You were always meant to be mine. You’re just playing at being Harleen Wayne. You were always going to be my Harley Quinn!”.

She makes to swing the bat again, but she doesn’t have a target. Not one that wasn’t already touched by her rage.

“Come out Joker! Come out and fight me!”

She didn’t realize it, not until she passes by a normal mirror, but she was now wearing her bat suit. A figure moves up behind her, and she can feel them by sensing them. Her training kicked in and melded with her rage, and without thinking she turns and brings the bat down on the figure shrouded in black.

She keeps bringing it down upon the body, enjoying each sound be it a thwack or a bone breaking. Blood begins to return with the bat as she brings it up into the air, having brought it down on the person’s face.

“THIS WHAT YOU WANTED YOU FREAK? IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED? KEEP LAUGHING NOW MOTHERFUCKER!”

The rage, as suddenly as it gripped, let go, and she saw things clearly. The blood stained bat...she brings it up to her face and looks at it, quivering at what she had just done, even if it was to the Joker. 

“Ohh God...what…”

“Harleen…”

A hand reaches up weakly, shaking in pain, and Harleen gets a good look at who she had actually beat down. Her eyes widen, and she falls to her knees next to the limp body as the man’s hand falls. “Bruce...no…”

He doesn’t say anything, but he keeps rhythmically breathing, slowly, as his lungs were collapsed. She gathers him in her arms, sobbing. “Harleen…” he rasps out. “You killed me”.

“No puddin’! No, I...you’re gonna be okay. I’m so sorry. Bruce..baby? I’m so damn sorry. Please. Please don’t leave me. Stay with me baby. Puddin’?”

He had stopped breathing, and she pushes his mask off, wanting to see him. His eyes were still, no sign of life in them. She shakes and screams out in pain. “Bruce! Ohh god Bruce….”.

She sobs even harder and presses her face into his chest, just as the laughter begins again.

This time though...Joker begins to sing.

“You’veeee got meeee, under your skin”.


	4. Chapter 4

**_Downtown Gotham_ **

Vic loathed traffic.

He did. He couldn’t think of anything more he despised than traffic. He reaches up to adjust the rearview mirror, trying to get a better fix on his surroundings though the need to do something, anything had also played a part.

He sighs, gripping the steering wheel tightly.

Despite the traffic? He absolutely loved his job. He’d never had a job that required him to wear a uniform and it felt good to be instantly connected with a service, even if it was for his best friend. It also allowed him to spend a lare amount of time with the children as well, his own and Bruce’s.

He loved them. So much.   
  
He couldn’t believe how much of Dinah he saw in them, though he also saw peeks of himself from them, mostly from Rosaleen and Bruce. He felt a little bit better now, sitting in traffic and taking a moment to really take stock of what he had.

Not only did he have his own four, but he had Bruce and Harleen’s four to help look after as well. He spent a fair amount of time with them, being the last face they saw before going to school, and the first they saw when they got out. He helped them with their history homework, and sometimes their science when it wasn’t too far above him.

When Bruce or Harleen were working very later, he and Dinah would talk them all into bed, and Bruce and Harleen vice versa.

There was definitely the sense of “my children” in regards to the ones that were biologically theirs, but it was also different in that Uncle Vic and Aunt Dinah, and even Aunt Pamela and Uncle Harvey, all contributed as well.

‘Dinah…’.

Their anniversary was coming up, and he’d only just been reminded. He wasn’t the most romantic of men, but he had been planning out something that he hoped she would enjoy. ‘Hell, being alone with one another might be great all on its own’.

The phone rings, and seeing as how he wasn’t going anywhere any time soon, he answers, finding that the call was coming from the batmobile. That was a clue all in itself.

“Hello?”

“Babydoll, it’s Dinah”.

“Dinah? What’s wrong?”

“Are the kids with you?” she asks frantically.

“No, I’m stuck in traffic on my way to pick them up. Tell me what’s wrong. Where are you?”

“I’m in the batmobile with Batman. We’re on our way to Arkham Asylum. Something’s wrong with Harleen”.

His heart ran cold at those words, and he knew, just knew that somehow the Joker was involved in this. “Ohh God..”.

“We’re going to save her Vic but don’t let the kids know anything is going on. Okay?”

“I won’t tell them anything. I promise but be careful Dinah. You too Bruce. Harleen is going to be fine” he says, not able to summon up the necessary conviction in his own voice that he wanted to convey to his wife. 

“We will. We’ve gotta go. Getting into the Asylum grounds. I love you”.

Before he can say it back she cuts the line, the situation being obviously quite dire. “I love you too”. He was more than discomforted and the joy he felt at going over the state of his family was ruined by the revelation that they were in danger. ‘And you can’t do a damn thing about it’. Vic slams his fists down on the wheel, knowing that it was the right call but still unable to take it.

They’d always agreed that at least one, preferably two, would be left behind in case something happened, for the kids of course. But things had a habit of happening so quickly and organically in Gotham that they didn’t always get a choice of who would be each incident’s “designated survivors”.

This time it was shaping up that it would just be him if it all went wrong.

‘Dammit’.

The traffic had started to clear up, apparently having been caused by an impromptu bit of roadwork brought on by a slight fender bender. Now that the guard rail had been repaired the traffic could move on. If he had been in a better mood he might consider the merits of jokingly telling the kids, well, half jokingly, about the government bureaucracy mixed in with corporate and union interests that would lead to such a stall in transportation.

His thoughts were too dark for that.

No. 

As he pushed slightly on the gas pedal, moving towards the exit ramp that would lead to the private elementary school attached to the middle and high school. The closeness of the Kane Catholic Education complex had appealed to the extended Wayne family for a multitude of reasons, though the fact that it was number one in the state and couple with its traditional, conservative views, appealed to Elise Quinzel, Dinah and Harvey.

Vic didn’t mind either way, as long as his babies were happy and he was there to watch over them.

Now however, the school’s proximity to the Manor felt like a curse. He had to school his face and emotions which were in complete disarray, just to let the kids know that everything was safe.

This wasn’t the first time he’d questioned his life choices. If he could be a father, and a vigilante attacking and dismantling the conspiracy along with all of the others who meant to harm Gotham.

Their faces flash into his mind, and he’s once again reminded that he had to do this. His double life was necessary to ensure that they might one day be able to live in a city that’s safe.

‘If I don’t do it, no one else will’.

With that thought, he’s calmed down enough to do what’s necessary, to pretend that everything was alright and keep on. He pulls into the school’s parking lot, just as they were emptying out, and with a fake, but convincing smile on his face, he gets out to wait for the kids.

**_Right Outside of Arkham_ **

He parked the car, but he doesn’t move from it. Not yet. Dinah herself was getting impatient, and she reaches down to press the button that would open the canopy. She’s stopped by Bruce’s hand around her wrist.

She stops to look at him, angered by his reluctance until she sees the flashing warning on the batmobile’s computer screen.

“Unknown compound? What the hell does that mean?” she asks as the man releases his grip upon her. “It means that something is in the air that we aren’t knowledgeable of”.

  
She blushes at the perceived slight. “Yeah. I guess that was a dumb question huh?”

“No. Sorry. I’m tense”.

An apology from the Batman was rare, though it was also rare for him to snap at any of them like he was. She understood though. She wouldn’t exactly be all peaches and cream if it was Vic who was in a tough situation all alone.

A thing veil of brownish mist swirls about the car, and that was probably the first tip off she had that something was going very badly at the asylum. He hands something over to her, and she looks at the object in his hand with mild confusion before taking it and unfurling it.   
  


“A gas mask?”

“We’re going to need it” he responds, placing a lower portion over the exposed part of his cowl where his mouth was. “Montoya. This is Batman” he calls out, over the intercom, pulling up the commissioner.

“Batman? Well, we’re glad to hear from you. There’s an issu…”

“At Arkham Asylum. Black Canary and I are already on sight. We want you to keep your men back. A strange chemical compound is lingering about the building and the grounds adjacent to it. Whatever happened here, your people aren’t prepared”.

While he was speaking Dinah slipped the mask over her head, and tried to position it to more safely accommodate her hair. ‘Dammit..I should cut this shorter...no..Vic would hate that. So would I’.

When she finally gets it on, while still speaking to the commissioner, Batman reaches over and flips a switch on the side of it, enabling her to hear the conversation. “Ohh nifty. Built in comms”.

“Black Canary?”

“Ohh yeah, hey Commissioner. I’m here yeah”.

“Ohh good. Batman...do you need Katana on site?”

This was still a sore subject for the caped crusader, but, over the years the Japanese woman had wormed her way closer to the family, if even only for their night time escapades. Still...her willingness to take life, even if she hadn’t killed in years, it was something that didn’t sit well with the man.

“Not yet. Tell her to be on standby though. Canary and I are going to enter the asylum. We’ll see what we can do about the gas. Batman out”.

He severs the link, leaving two way comms up between him and Dinah.

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah, let’s go”.

The canopy opens and they jump out into the mist which is only growing stronger and thicker. It was so bad that they could barely see one another. “Batman? Batman? Can you see me?” Dinah asks, only barely able to make out his shape.

“Yes. Something is amplifying the mist. We need to call in the Batwing. Alfred, can you hear me?”

“Yes Master Wayne” the dependable butler’s voice crackles to life over the intercom. “I came down here as soon as I heard. Is Mrs. Wayne alright?”

Bruce was silent for a moment, wanting to rush in and save his wife but knowing that doing so just might cause more harm than good. “I don’t know yet Alfred”.

“My word…”.

“Deploy the Batwing” Bruce says, not wanting to fixate on what might be wrong when time was being lost that could be used to save her.

“Yes sir. And what shall I do with it once I have it in the air?”

He was glad that Alfred was just as task and goal orientated as he was. In the long run it would count for very much. “I want you to circle Arkham with it and deploy the atmospheric analytic device. I need to know what’s in the air. See if you can deploy a stabilizing agent as well…”.

Dinah felt her attention to this conversation drift away, and her focus began to move onto the shapes advancing on them through the mist. “Batman…”.

“I see them”.

She brings her glove covered fists up, ready to use her impeccable training to make whoever was coming to them regret it. “Any positive visual?”

She couldn’t see Bruce, but she was sure he was doing the same.

“Not yet, but they’re almost…”.

Before the words are fully out, she’s thrown to the ground, a figure slamming into her side and then laying atop her to keep her pinned to the ground.

“YOU’RE NOT TAKING MY SKIN! YOU’RE NOT!”

Of all the things Dinah expected to come rushing from the fog to attack her, an Arkham patient wasn’t one of them. The man looked positively feral as he reaches down to try and choke her, though Dinah is just as quick to throw a punch right under the man’s chin, sending him sprawling back onto the ground.

She’s on her feet quick enough though, seeing the other shadows move in upon her as soon as they saw the first man go down. “Ohh fuck, there’s a ton of them!” she shouts breathlessly, managing to roundhouse kick one straight in the side of the head as he advanced upon her with a broken chair leg.

She feels one pin her arms behind her back in an attempt to allow another in front of her to bring a shiv into her stomach. Even in their fear, they were working together, and it was clear that none of their engines wee firing on full capacity. 

She uses her leg to kick the knife out of the other man’s hands before slamming her head back against the one who was holding her still, shattering his nose and causing him to let go of her to try and staunch the blood.

“Sorry, I’m married” she says before throwing one hell of a haymaker into the man’s gut, allowing him to move onto his knees and giving her yet another opportunity to wreak serious damage. Her knee comes up and slams into the man’s already broken face, sending him sprawling out onto the grass.

“Canary! Don’t go easy on them! We need to get to Harleen!”

“Already beat you to it Bats” she says, beginning to walk towards where she believes the entrance to the asylum is. She can hear on the other end of the line that Batman was having quite a fight as well. She wanted to help him more, but in this mist of...whatever it was, it was impossible, and anyways, she was too focused on combating the random shapes that throw themselves at her, intent on taking her life.

“Somethings wrong with them” she says, ducking the clumsily delivered blow of someone who was wearing a guard’s uniform. “And it isn’t just the prisoners”. She sends the man careening back into the cloud that encircles her, where he hopefully wouldn’t get back up for a little while.

“It’s the air. Something is in it. Make sure to keep your gas mask on”.

“Thanks for the concern bats. Are you almost at the door?”

She could tell that she wasn’t to far off by how the gravel under her feet had switched to a cobblestone walk way. She slowly moves her hands around, searching for the railway that lined the step. She finds it, and her hand grasps around it to guide her the rest of the way just in time for a screaming and snarling face to thrust itself out at her through the darkness.

“THE BUGS! THE BUGS! THEY’RE UNDER MY SKIN!”

She wasn’t going to wait to see if he was hostile or not, and she would bet any amount of money that being unconscious was a whole hell of a lot better than thinking bugs were under your skin.

She grabs his hair and slams his face down on the railing, throwing his limp body back onto what she hoped was grass on the other side before moving up the stairs. “Yes. I’m there. Can you see me?”

“No but I’m getting there myself. Dammit, this stuff is like a funhouse of horror or something. Do you think the Joker is behind this?” she asks, taking out one of the glow sticks she secreted on her person. It was actually a funny story how she came to have them as part of her “gear”. They were really just put there by Bruce when he was three, the toddler thinking that they would make a good flashlight.

  
“I help mommy?” he’d said to her cutely.

Since then? She carried glowsticks. 

She cracks the little tube open and waves it about, hoping that it would give Batman a clue of where they were before letting all the other inmates who were out and about see her location.

“Do you see me now?”

“Yes. Keep moving forward. Watch out for your feet. I knocked…”.

  
Right before the words were out of the man’s mouth, she almost trips over a body, and she shakes her head and growls, allowing the man to finish. “Out a few who attacked me”.

She finally sees the man’s shadow, a veritable dark blob through the mist with pointy ears. She suppresses her shiver, seeing why criminals feared the man so intensely. “That was fun” she says, meaning the exact opposite as she saddles up next to him beside the large wooden doors that led into the asylum.

He doesn’t respond to her joke or sarcasm, being much too intent on saving his wife at this point. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah. Let’s do this”.

They both push in on the doors and enter the asylum, happy that the mist was less thick in here though it was surely more pungent. “How the hell is he spreading this crap? Or She...I don’t know. My money is still on this being the Joker”.

He couldn’t rule that out, but still, this didn’t feel like the Joker’s handiwork. It felt like someone new, and that was always something frightening to encounter.

He would have to learn the rules he was playing by when it came to whoever this new criminal was, and with his wife in the balance? 

He was going to have to figure it out quickly.

**_Metropolis, Lex Corp Headquarters_ **

“Mercy, we don’t have time for questions” the bald man says sternly, still moving down the halls of Lexcorps. All around him boxes were being lowered and carted away into what amounted to a convoy of epic proportions at the base of Lexcorp tower.

The woman who served as Lex’s body guard and driver was rushing behind her boss, fighting to keep up with his gait.

“But Mr. Luthor...I don’t understand! What’s going on?”

He stops, but only for a second to chastise a young man loading a few boxes onto a hand truck. “Hey! Careful with that please! Jesus Christ we can’t lose any of this alright?” he seethes before calming at the young man’s frightened look.   
  


“I’m sorry. Shouldn’t have snapped just...be careful okay?”

The man nods and gulps down his fear. Nobody liked to cross Mr. Luthor, so it was always a saving grace when he didn’t see the infraction as severe. “Sorry Mr. Luthor. It wont happen again”.

“I trust you” the man says faux dismissively before turning back down the hallway, heading once more to the elevator. Mercy was again trying to keep up with him, and she knew that from his behaviour that whatever was going on was deathly serious. 

“Lex...please...just…”

“Superman is coming for us”.

“What?” 

“You heard me” the man says, losing his temper again before retracting the stress ball he carried in his pocket. He takes deep breathes and squeezes it repeatedly, having taken to the habit recently. Mercy wants to further relax him, and she reaches out for his shoulders and gently rubs along them.

He closes his eyes and nods, having calmed down enough to speak again just as the elevator finally reaches their floor. They step in, though the shorter woman continues to reach up and rub his shoulders.

“Superman has found out that I know his weakness” he explains. “What he’s done in Europe? That’s coming here soon Mercy. He’s managed to completely put the European Union under his control and too many heads of state who don’t want to play ball have wound up dead for my liking. So, we’re going to the one place that he isn’t going to be able to get us”.

“Where?”

He turns to her and smiles, “Gotham City”.

“What makes you think we’ll be safe there?” she asks breathlessly, letting the immensity of what was going on settle over her. 

“Harvey Dent” he explains. “You see, it’s easy to understand why so many people view Superman positively, why they’re rushing to throw themselves into his arms. He provides them safety, or at least the illusion of it. He pretends to listen. Any resistance movement in the United States that might, and I do mean might, pop up is doomed to failure because it wont have an effective leader”.

“And Harvey Dent has been one of the most popular outspoken critics of Superman as of late” Mercy concludes. Lex just nods, glad that she was one of the few employees he didn’t feel he had to spoon feed everything to. “Not only that, Bruce Wayne”.

“From what I know of Wayne he’s just a playboy, or rather, was. Now he’s married. Wife and kids. Still not particularly striking as a focal point of anti-League resistance”.

“I wouldn’t underestimate him” Lex teases, a wry smile on his lips. “Inside sources tell me that Wayne Enterprises is preparing for Superman just as much as Lexcorp. The issue is that he’s lacking the information we have” he says as the elevator stops and the doors open. “Or the resources to use it”.

As they step out into the loading bay where a steady drumbeat of trucks were moving in and out, being attended to and loaded by an omnipresent force of forklifts and workers. 

“That’s why we’re going to be moving to Gotham City. Providing Mr. Wayne and the vigilantes there, who have already made it clear through Mr. Dent, their unwillingness to work with Superman”.

He moves over to a crate that was just about to be sealed, and Mercy finds her eyes drawn to the green glow that emanates from within the crate. “Ohh...what...what is that?” she asks, wanting to reach out and touch it. “Synthetic kryptonite. Superman’s weakness. It’s not as potent as the real stuff, but it does the trick and I can make an almost infinite amount of it” the bald man explains. 

“This is what you’re offering Gotham in exchange for you going there?” she asks.

“Us going there Mercy” he says, crossing his arms behind his back. “I’m relocating all of Lexcorp into Gotham City where, going against every fiber of my being, I’m going to beg Wayne to let me set up shop and help”.

She knew how hard it was for the genius to ask for help. In a way she respected it, his desire to be completely self sufficient and his up till now success at doing so. She was on board with this. If Lex thought it was necessary to defeat Superman? She’d do it. She’d do anything he asked of her, just like the past ten years showed her when she was a homeless teenager on the run. She’d met the young entrepreneur and, after helping him fight off a few thugs in the back streets of Metropolis, had offered her a job. 

He’d earned her loyalty a thousand times over, and her he.

Still, there was something else. Something important she needed to say. The burnette casts a quick look around, seeing that nobody had noticed the two speaking to one another. “Lex...there’s something we need to talk about, before we head out to Gotham”.

“Mercy, we…”

“We have time” she exclaims, silencing the man with the fierceness of her gaze. 

“For a few years now...we’ve been, doing what we’ve been doing. On a personal note” she says, blushing like mad and looking away. “I’m just going to come out and say it. I’m tired of being treated like your dirty little secret. Of having you sneak into my room when nobody would notice, and leaving before the sun rises. Lex...I think you know I love you” she admits, that sentence having taken a lot out of her. “But...I can’t keep doing this if you don’t love me. I owe you everything, I know, but I still deserve better than that”.

She was digging her heels into the ground, refusing to budge on this issue. “A new start, in a new city? Good. I want to know where you and I stand. If you don’t feel the same way for me, that’s fine. I’ll keep being your chauffer, and your body guard, and even your friend. But I wont be a sex doll”.

She was purposely keeping her tone low to avoid the workers hearing what they were saying, though it was pretty obvious that they were all too far away to hear anything. 

She stared Lex down, seeing the indecision in his eyes and worrying. Had she gambled too far? Was this the worst time to drop such an ultimatum on a man? 

She was already regretting her words, though she didn’t have time to put words in the air to her regrets as Lex leans forward, wraps and arm about her waist, and presses his lips to her own. 

Now THAT, the workers saw, and everything seemed to stop in that moment. Pictures were taken on phones, and Mercy was still at the...well, mercy of Lex’s touch. Her eyes were wide open, having never expected such an open reaction. IF Lex reciprocated her feelings, she had figured he would tell he privately.

But this? This was also good.

She moves her arms around him, and smiles into the kiss as the workers begin to hoot and holler in appreciation at seeing the normally stoic and tough as nails woman attached to their boss’ hip in such a state of abandon.   
  


Lex releases the woman’s lips, though he keeps his hand on her waist. The man was flustered, and blushing a bright hue while Mercy just smiles up at him, caressing his cheek. 

He lets go of her and straightens himself out, working on his tie that Mercy had undone in her fervor. “Fine. Have it your way” the man says imperiously. “Have your rooms and mine placed together once we get to Gotham. Issue a memorandum that that rule of not dating coworkers has been dropped due to my hypocrisy of having been with you for four years and most importantly…” he says, stopping to glare at the snickering workers.

“Get these slobbering monkey’s back to work!”

He was hiding his embarrassment under a veneer of corporate apathy/disdain, but she knew the truth. That was enough. 

“I need an aspirin” he says, turning and squeezing his stress ball once more, moving back into the elevator to retrieve whatever else he was meant to do. Another thing about Lex? He never just sat back and relaxed. Hands on was his motto.

“Alright you heard Mr. Luthor! All of you, back to work! Double time!” she shouts, unable to assume the same angry tone that Lex was, especially at this moment. 

“Yes Ms. Graves!” the workers nearest to her all chorus out before turning back to their respective duties, mixing the crates filled with the kryptonite along with a multitude of Lex’s other toy’s and experiments.

Mercy rushes back to the elevator that had just come back down following Lex’s exit, and steps inside. 

‘I better go get him that aspirin. He probably already forgot’.

**_Arkham Asylum_ **

“We need to find her! Where the hell is she?”

Dinah was beginning to get worried, and she never liked being worried. Especially not like this. They had scoured the building almost top to bottom, putting down inmates and securing them as best as they could.

Still, there was no sign of Harleen.

“She has to be in the living quarters. There’s no other place left” Batman says, turning down the hall that led to the said living quarters. They were the old part of Arkham that had served as numerous different things throughout its lifetime. Barracks, prison and tuberculosis ward. Now? They were where off duty guards could relax. 

“Well, how interesting…” 

Scarecrow turns the corner, staring down the two vigilantes who had come to fight him. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for soooo long. So glad you didn’t disappoint me” the man teases. “I’ve got this freak Bats” Dinah says, stepping forward. “You just keep looking for any other survivors” she says, cloaking their real mission here in vague terms to preserve the integrity of his secret identity.

“What...how are you not affected by my gas?” the man shouts out exasperatedly.

He didn’t appear to them as the hulking monster that frightened everyone else. In fact, as Dinah looked him over, she could easily say that she wasn’t impressed. He was a scrawny little man wearing torn and tattered burlap, and a straw hat upon his head. “It’s called a gas mask genius” Dinah says, cracking her knuckles while moving forward, giving the man reason to worry.

“No, no, no! This isn’t fair!” he says, backing up with his hands held outwards. “You’re supposed to be afraid of me! Afraid! Your worst fears!”

“And it appears that your worst fear is a girl whose about to kick your ass so nothing has changed for you since high school!” Dinah says, beginning to enjoy this.

“No, no!”

The Scarecrow rushes down one of the side corridors, and Dinah makes to follow him without thinking. “Canary wai…”.

“Whose there?”

He turns rapidly, knowing that voice as well as he knew his own. It had come from behind him, and he sees Harleen standing in the middle of the hallway. Her clothes were ragged and the look on her face...he almost couldn’t bear it.

An unbroken trail of tears lined her cheeks, dragging some of her smeared makeup of which she wore only a little, all across with it. Her eyes were what frightened him the most. They were wide and open, almost unseeing in their fear. 

It was like she was looking right past him.

“Harleen?”

He calls out her name in the hopes of snapping her out of it, but her eyes lock onto him and tighten into a glare. She raises a guard’s baton she had in her hand over her head and sways unsteadily on her feet.

“WHO ARE YOU?”  
  
“Harleen…” Bruce says, trying to calm her down. Seeing as they were the only ones there, he didn’t see the harm in using his real name. “It’s me. Bruce. Your husband” he says, knowing that the gas was affecting her. 

He just didn’t know how much it was affecting her.

“No, no...you’re...you’re not Bruce!!”

She charges him instantly, the baton raised high up over her head, ready to bring it down in a horrid strike.

**_????????????_ **

She sees the creature, and she knows, knows, that it killed Bruce. 

‘It...it wasn’t me! It was this thing! This thing trying to wear his skin!’

The creature which was all black, though its eyes were orbs of fiery hell, snarled at her, reaching out it’s claws that were dripping with the blood of her family. She knew it! Just knew it. It wasn’t her fault! No, it was this thing’s.

“Harleen…” it whispers out gruffly, it’s voice an affront to warmth in the known universe. “It’s me. Bruce. Your husband”.

With a sick smile plastered across the thing’s face, it reaches out with another hand and showcases the head of her husband it had grasped by the hair. “Why...why didn’t you save me Harley? I loved you”.

  
She was lost for words as the voice speaks through the head, though she knows that the voice wasn’t coming from her husband. No. It was much more familiar. She turns back to the creature, whose face began to shift even more, molding and melting and then reforming until the Joker looked back at her.

“HAHAHAHA! Ohh Harley! You really should see the look on your face. Ohh it’s so delectable. Honestly! But, I’ll make it all better. After all…” he pauses, shaking his head and molding his face again. This time, it changes to a jokerized version of Bruce, whose eyes glare hatefully back at her.

“Who would know you better than me?” it asks in a mockery of her husband’s voice.

“No, no...you’re...you’re not Bruce!” she screams, throwing herself forward as she finally knows what to do. She wasn’t going to cower anymore, and just let this creature keep taunting her.

No. 

This wasn’t going to happen! She was Harleen Wayne. She was Batwoman, and just like Bruce she was vengeance. 

She brings the baton up over her head, intending to bring it down atop the creature’s skull, though he was quicker at this point. It reaches out deftly and grabs her wrist, keeping her from moving the weapon any further down. She fully expects to die, to feel the creature snap her wrist and be done with it, but he doesn’t. Instead, it pins her against the wall, much more gently than she would’ve thought the beast capable off.

“Harley...Harley, listen to me!” the distorted evil grinning face of Bruce taunts her. “It’s me! Bruce. Your husband. The one you failed in every single way. The one who hates you”.

That stung her and she couldn’t let it lie. “No, no! Bruce loves me! He does I know it! I know it!”

“He pitties you” the Joker teases, the faces now switching back and forth at will. “You’re a good fuck to him. That’s all. That ring on your finger. It doesn’t mean anything. You’re just his property Quinzel, and when he gets tired? He’ll dump you off and find a new woman to slip into that bat suit of yours”.

“YOU’RE LYING!”

She swings her fist up directly into the creatures face, impacting his eye more than anything. It howls in pain and steps back, dropping her as he does. This gives her a chance to launch herself up at his midsection and she takes it to deliver a flurry of blows against it. “I’m Harleen Wayne! I am Batwoman! You’re nothing! Nothing! Just a stupid clown!”

The creature slips away from her, grasping her body close to it she tries to wiggle free. Whatever it was doing, it was attempting to keep her still. 

She wouldn’t allow that. 

She headbutts the creature, ignoring the pain she inflicts on herself to try and free her arms to deliver a continuous flurry of punches into her attacker. It doesn’t work, and while the creature doesn’t hurt her, he doesn’t let go, and his grip only tightens. 

Slowly it shifts to one arm about her waist, while its other goes out with the claws drawn back, ready to come down upon her. She feels fear again, and she knows that it’s going to hurt. “Ohh please...no...no...AHHHH!”

She screams out as the claws come back in and pierce her skin, though she feels oddly….better as soon as they do. 

She opens and closes her eyes and the hellish landscape around her begins to slowly form away, and when she looks back at the creature she only sees Bruce, or rather, Bruce wearing the batsuit.

“Bruce?”

**_Arkham Asylum_ **

He gently takes her head in his hands and looks down at her, watching through the broken lens of his cowl as the fog lifts from her eyes, allowing them to go back to their vibrant deep blue.

“Bruce?” she asks tiredly, and the man nods, reaching down to his belt and retracting another gas mask. Quickly he presses it to her mouth, allowing her to breath while responding to Alfred over his comm link.

“Master Bruce, did the insulin shot work?”

“Yes Alfred. We’ve got her back” he says, running his fingers through her hair while lifting her up into a gurney that happened to be nearby. “She’s going to be okay” he explains, watching as she takes deep rhythmic breaths. 

“Thank the lord master Bruce. Elise has been worried sick”.

“How is the situation outside?” Bruce asks, remaining close to his wife, his gloved hand reaching out for hers to allow the woman to rapidly take hold of it.

“Very well Master Bruce. The toxin, as you know increases output from the adrenal gland. Insulin cures it, bu moisture dispels it. It was apparently on the man’s clothes, and slowly spread in a time release fashion. He placed something in the air conditioning system to the best of my knowledge, and that explains how it spread so easily around the grounds of Arkham. It’s self replicating Master Bruce. Quite ingenious. However, the gas cannot linger so I’ve been using the batwing to drop our fire fighting water canisters around the grounds of Arkham. As we speak it is dispelling”.

“Good. Now, engage the sprinklers within Arkham to dispel it inside the building”.

“As you wish Master Bruce”.

Before the man can comply, Bruce hovers over Harleen, using his cape to shield her from the water which begins to fall down from the ceiling onto them. He wasn’t focused on that however, and he can only keep staring at his wife who still seemed to be suffering lingering effects.

Slowly she reaches up and places her hand on his cheek, noticing the damage she’d done when she punched him in the face. “Puddin...I’m so sorry” she says, crying softly. “I...I thought you were someone else...and I saw the heads and…”.

“Shhh...Harleen. It’s over sweetie. It’s over”.

He reaches up to run his fingers through her hair, glad that he didn’t have to restrain himself due to the presence of others. Around them the gas was dispersing and disappearing, giving out little peels of resistance in the way little tendrils would remain and swirl before being overcome.   
  
When the last of it was gone, the sprinklers disengage, leaving a very quiet Arkham asylum in their wake.

“Bruce...I love you”.

“I love you too Harleen. Relax. You’re still suffering from the gas” he explains, gently removing the gas mask from her face to allow her to breath some fresh air. When he does she inhales deeply and coughs, spewing the remnants of the panic inducing gas from her lungs and intaking fresh, if humid, air.

“Well, gee, whoever called on the water works, thanks” Dinah calls as she advances down the hallway toward the two.

She was soaked, head to toe, and it was certainly showing in the corset she wore tightly around her chest. She throws a body to the floor in front of Bruce, all neatly wrapped and secured. “Turns out, he was really fucking weak. Asshole”.

She wanted to kick the unconscious man in the side of the head for causing so many problems, but it was clear from the bruises and cuts that the man hadn’t gotten off easily. When he was unmasked he looked like nothing but an unassuming, if rather bookish, man you’d find walking down any street. 

But after what he’d done to his wife? Bruce wasn’t inclined to care much for how roughly he’d been handled by Canary.   
  
“Wet t shirt contests are only supposed to be for my husband to see me in. Nothing personal Bruce” Dinah teases, buttoning up her jacket to cover herself a bit more. In recent years, she’d gotten more attentive to modesty due to the fact that she had children and was a regular with said children at mass. 

‘Besides, you still get to be sexy for Vic in the bedroom’ she thinks.

“I ain’t worried” Harleen says tiredly from the gurney, still somewhat out of it. “My tits are my puddin’s favorite so I doubt he’d even wanna look at yours blondie”.

“Pfft, and here comes Mrs. Wayne all back to normal, her sarcastic teasing normal self” Dinah says, saddling up beside her best friend. “How you doing sweetie?”

“I’m okay” Harleen says, feeling like a truck had hit her.

“Hmm...well, when we get home I guess we all just have to spoil you a bit anyways. Yay for you huh?” Dinah says, trying to cover the fact of her worry by kissing her friends forehead and taking her hand, squeezing it tightly. “Glad we got you sis, but...we need to go. Lots of questions are gonna be asked if the cops who are starting to enter the building see you and Bats here smooching on a gurney”.

Harleen nods and smiles. “I know. I know. The hospital will take good care of me” she says before turning to Bruce. “Puddin’, you make sure our babies know that mommy is alright because of how heroic their daddy is”.

“And their Aunt Dinah”.

Harleen rolls her eyes. “And their Aunt Dinah. I’ll see you soon Bruce”. 

He squeezes her hand and leans down to kiss it. “As soon as I can, we’re getting you out of the hospital”.

“Sounds good pudd”.

She’s distracted by the sound of a door slamming open, and she hears the police call out to them. “GCPD! Hands up!”.

When Harleen turns her head back she sees that Bruce and Dinah were both gone, never liking having to mingle with the rank and file of GCPD anyways.

“Hello? Anyone down there?” Montoya calls out, making to lower her pistol as Harleen waves from the gurney. “Down here! Batman left a little present for you guys” she adds while pointing downwards at the prone man on the ground.

“Careful though. This one’s a stinkbug”

**_Gotham City_ **

“I don’t understand Joker” Dick says, following behind the man as they walk through the back alleys of the city. “We break out, and what? What do we do now?”  
  


“Whatever we want little J! Whatever we want” the man says excitedly, his hands in the pockets of the coat he’d stolen. Both were wearing the clothing of two pedestrians they had murdered right outside of Gotham.

They’d been sitting on a bench when the two escaped inmates grabbed them and sliced their throats. It would be a while before their bodies were found in the underbrush but by then? The Joker and his now teenage accomplice would be long gone.

It was amazing what five years of separation could do. Dick had grown, though he still kept the unique skin and hair tone gifted to him by his trip into Ace Chemicals finest brew. He had spent the years exercising and working out, so now he was a verifiable brute.

He was so strong that it was a surprise the jacket they’d lifted off of the other man even fit him.

“Surprise we’re even leaving Arkham” Dick says confusedly. “Especially with your precious Harleen Quinzel being back there”.

The Joker stops and smiles, remembering the sinfully sweet little detail that Dick simply didn’t know what he did. The women that they both desire, though in different ways, was one and the same. ‘Should I tell him? Aww no. Not yet. Let’s not spoil the surprise! Hehe’.

“Aww are you jealous little Jester? You know you’re my best friend in the whole world but let’s face it, two guys? It’s turning into a sausage fest. Whose gonna clean up our messes when we’re off doing…”.   
  
A sound from in front of the two clowns stops them in their tracks, and they watch as a manhole cover is pushed up and to the side, a face eagerly peaking out over the side.

“Well hello...who is this…” Joker teases, moving onto his knees. 

The head lets out an “eeep” of surprise and ducks back down, causing a scuffle from somewhere deeper in the exit. “Let me lead us then ye of faint heart!”

Joker looks over his shoulder at Dick and winks. “Only in Gotham do things just pop up like this. Heheh”.

A figure begins to rise from the manhole and he slowly lifts himself up into the Gotham air. Deacon Blackfire for the first time in six years, was back on the surface level. The man takes a moment to breath in and stare in visible hate at the Gomorrah he felt had been built atop his head. He spares the Joker only one glance before reaching back into the manhole and lifting up a child, setting him gently and reverently on the ground. 

He repeats the action to bring forth a woman, who instantly is unsettled by the clown’s appearance and rushes to the boy. 

“Who are you?” the man in the robes asks, stepping forward before the Joker and glaring. “Ahhh well the real question is..who are you random man who has popped up out of the sewer?” Joker asks while laughing. Dick himself was eyeing the curvy redhead, admiring her even while showing evidence of being in the sewer for years.

‘After so long in a cell, anything will do’.

“I am Deacon Blackfire. High prophet of the one true God and his form upon Earth, James Gordon” he says, gesturing at the boy who was standing beside him. Joker gasps and falls to his knees, making the sign of the cross and bowing before the boy before tugging Jason to do the same. “Come on lad, we are before God! Ohh I knew he was coming, just knew it. And to a place like Gotham!” the man teases before his smirk falls. “Trust me this place needs a good ole’ rapturing if I ever saw one”.

Dick doesn’t budge, and instead regards the kid as nothing more than a brat who already seemed pompous and self important. “God huh?” Dick asks. “Do any miracles? Like turn some water into wine or maybe get that robe off of her”.

Barbara gasps in shock, moving further behind Blackfire who for his part was flummoxed. “How dare you speak to the ark of the new covenant in such a way boy! Holy fire shall cleanse you…”.

“Easy there sewer Moses, easy” Joker says, standing in what he hoped was a conciliatory gesture. He moves next to Dick and smiles, ruffling the boy’s hair. “He’s just a growing lad trying to stretch his legs a bit. Now, sure, he wants to do some bad stuff but that don’t mean he’s a bad kid right?”

“Hmm”.

“After all, if that guy on the cross died for our sins and all, and we don’t use up some of it? Well, now that’s just bad manners making him die for nothing. So, hey, be a sport and let my boy have a night alone with that buxom lady over there and I might, might, consider letting you hear a joke!” the Joker says, loving how irate the man was getting. 

“Enough. I shall not have the lord hear such foolishness. Saints! To us! Protect your god!”

Without warning a large group of men quickly assemble, moving up from the manhole cover and assuming a position around the two escapees. Each had a rifle, and it appeared that they were already cocked and ready to use. 

The numbers just keep coming as well until no less than twenty five men had Joker and Dick in the crosshairs. 

“And there are more willing to give their lives for the sanctity of our lord and his mother. Do not test me. Simply walk away and perhaps you will be spared on the day of atonement, though I doubt it”.

Joker raises his hands in surrender and smiles at Dick. “Well Dickie boy, looks like they’ve got us surrounded. It’s over! Ohh how bad is it to die in an alley surrounded by bums on their way to….hey, what is it you merry band of sewer rats are up to anyways?” the Joker asks. 

“Jihad” Blackfire says. “Holy war upon those who refuse to accept the words our God has to give. Who refuse his gifts and wisdom”.

“Ohh? And who are you gonna attack first? Just out of ole’ curiosity”.

Blackfire points to the east, directly at the newly rebuilt Wayne Enterprises that was stretching into the sky and piercing through the fog like a needle. “There. That is the den of the devil upon this city. His lair. His base of operations. We are going to attack, but only once we are ready. Once our lord has been seen by the masses and his words proselytized to them, can we continue”.

“Sooo...you want to destroy Bruce Wayne eh?” Joker asks, his mind already ticking away.

“He is but one, but yes, he is one who must fall if our lord is to sit and reign above this city”.

Joker now had an idea, a way to get everyone what they wanted.

“Well, looks like you’ve got your first two converts right here Moses” he teases with a menacing glare. 


	5. Chapter 5

**_Wayne Manor_ **

“Mom, are you sure you’re okay? Really, I can stay if you need me to” Jason says, sitting down on the couch next to Harleen. “Sweetie, I love you a ton but if you don’t stop fussing over me I’m gonna scream” the blonde jokes, leaning forward to place a kiss on the boy’s forehead.

“I’ve got Dinah, Pamela, Barbara and everyone else here. I’m fine”.

Jason wasn’t convinced, and he kept looking down to see the woman’s hand shake. “It’s gotten better” she supplies, already knowing what he was thinking. “I’ll be back to normal and back out on the streets in a few more days”.

“A week” Alfred says, coming in with a tray of dinner for the woman who was seated on the couch. “A week and not a single second less Mrs. Wayne” the butler continues, setting the tray table before her.

“Aww but Al…”.

“Don’t but Al him Harleen”, Elise says, moving up to her daughter to make sure that the blanket remained around her. “Mama..”.

“Don’t whine, you know what the doctor said. He wants you to remain nice and warm while you’re recovering”.

The younger blonde was pouting petulantly, hating that she had effectively been grounded as an adult. “Don’t pout. You know it’s important you get better. The kids need you”.

At that moment Dinah walks in, a child cradled in each arm and a veritable horde behind her. “Yup. These kiddos miss their mama being able to run around and play with them as well. I’m exhausted” Dinah says faux dramatically while setting Mary and Martha down. They instantly rush to their mouther,having to be restrained from pouncing by Alfred.

“Ohh my sweeties. Come here” Harleen says, prompting them to ignore the butler for a moment and crawl into their mother’s lap. Ever since Harleen had gotten out of the hospital, the two little girl’s hadn’t wanted to even be away from her for a second.

“How are you feeling mommy?” Martha asks, molding to her on the right side of the couch. “I’m okay Martha bear. I’m okay”. She was slowly getting closer to “okay”. Ever since the events at the Asylum, where she’d received an almost lethal dose of the so called Scarecrow, a.k.a Jonathan Crane’s, fear toxin, she’d been shaking.

The doctors said that she was lucky to be alive, and that if it hadn’t been for the timely intervention of the Batman, well...she didn’t want to think about it.

It was slowly going away, and the shaking and nightmares followed by random adrenaline spikes, while annoying and frightening, were slowly receding. She hadn’t been out on patrol as Batwoman for two whole weeks because of what happened, and it was taking a greater toll on her psyche than the after effects of the gas.

‘Well...a little while longer. Just make it through this Harleen’.

“I just wish..I wish you guys would’ve told us what was happening. I could’ve been there and helped” Jason says on the other side of Mary which allows him to gently rub his little sister’s back. Mary had been especially hard hit by the news of her mother’s injury, and had spent many nights crying while Harleen was in the hospital.

  
Even now the dark haired little girl was clinging to her mother in what almost amounted to a death grip, clearly afraid of losing her.

“Ohh sweetie” Harleen says, reaching out to wrap an arm about Mary while patting her eldest son on the shoulder. “I was fine. Your dad and Aunt Dinah were on the way and they saved my butt. Besides, I wanted you to be able to enjoy your date. How is Jenny anyways?” she teases the boy with a wink, wanting to get the subject off of her recovery and onto happier things.

“Yeah, how’d your first date with her go?” Dinah asks, moving onto the floor to play with her own children, each eagerly working on assembling some large lego style bricks. “I bet he kissed her!” Rosaleen teases with a giggle.

Jason just blushes and turns away. “No. No. Never on the first date” he says.   
  


“Ahh a true gentleman” Alfred says, sitting in his own chair contentedly, a watchful eye being cast over Harley. “My jeeves trained him well” Elise adds as an aside.

“I’d like to think I had a hand in some of that too”.

Bruce enters the room and makes a beeline for Harleen and he bends over the back of the couch to plant a kiss on her cheek alongside a ruffling of his two daughter’s hair. “Hey puddin’” Harleen says, gently grasping the man’s tie to keep them close.

“Harleen”

“You know, you’ve never actually come up with a pet name for me you know”, she chastises lightly, rubbing his cheek before letting the man go. Bruce just lets out a little chuckle, never having thought she needed one. “I call you Harls a lot when we’re alone”.

“True, very true. Ahh we’ll talk about it later. More privately”.

She winks and suddenly remembers another aspect of life post toxin. She hadn’t been able to make love to Bruce in at least two or three weeks, a record for them. She’d spent a lot of time in bed next to him, crying and cuddling, but not making love. ‘Poor guy. As soon as I’m better, I’m going to rock his world’.

“Speaking of Jenny Cobblepot. You’ve got another date with her tonight I hear” Bruce asks, though it was a rhetorical question as he undoubtedly already knew the answer. Jason was dressed rather nicely after all.

“Umm yeah, yeah. She invited me to dinner over at the Iceberg Lounge” he says, instantly drawing Bruce’s attention. “While you’re there..”.

“Already got it covered pops” Jason says, holding up a USB drive. “Right before the main course is served, I’ll slip away to the bathroom and plug this into the hard drive of her computer”.

“And what else?” Bruce asks, a little disappointed at how the boy had already been one step ahead of him. “What do you mean what else? This baby does everything. It’ll leave an imprint on the system, kind of like leaving open the backdoor, for us to have any future access we want while transmitting everything there is to the batcomputer. It also serves as a bug, though its range isn’t all that great” he explains before perking up a bit again. “We’ll be able to listen in on all the important conversations that go on but...to be honest? I really don’t think we’ll find anything”.

“The Iceberg Lounge has a ton of scumbags in it at any given time Jason”.

Barbara had entered the room, and was now leaning against the door frame. “I don’t want to sound mean but, more than likely? Oswald Cobblepot is dirty and his daughter is probably involved”.

“Barbara, sweetie. Where have you been hiding all day?” Harleen asks, happy to see her daughter.

“Just around” Barbara replies before moving into the room. She walks right past Jason and sits down beside him, though it was a little too close for the young man’s comfort and he backs off. Everything about her demeanor seemed to be different, and he couldn’t help but smell her perfume. 

“Woah Barbara, since when do you wear perfume?”

“Why? Don’t like it?”

The question was asked in a different way than usual, and gone was the combative attitude that might have usually accompanied it. She seemed to genuinely just want to know if he enjoyed the fragrance. “Ohh, no, no, I mean, well yeah it smells nice. On you. I mean it smells nice yeah”.

Barbara smiles and nods, not commenting on how he seemed to trip over his words. “Thanks Jason. Glad it has your seal of approval” she says before turning to Harleen. “Feeling any better mom?”

“I’m fine sweetie. Everyone needs to stop worrying about me” Harleen says faux exasperatedly. 

“Not going to happen. But Bruce, we better get going, especially if we’re going to meet Harvey and whoever it is he wants us to meet” Vic says, joining the group. “Especially if we’re going to have time to drop of Jason too”.

“Don’t worry Uncle Vic. Jenny is sending her family’s chauffeur to pick me up”.

The news seemed to worry the man, who wore his displeasure at the fact of someone else driving any member of his family other than him. “What do you mean? Whoever this chauffeur is, he hasn’t been vetted or anythi…”.

“Hold on Mr. paranoia, where are you going tonight Bruce?” Dinah asks, cutting off her husband to focus on the more important issue at hand.

“Harvey asked me to meet with him. He said that there was someone who wanted to talk with us about setting up shop here in Gotham. He said it’s important but he was afraid to tell me who it is as he thought if I knew I wouldn’t come”.

“Hmm...it’s not a trap is it?” Harleen asks, a little counter intuitively as if it was they certainly wouldn’t know if it was a trap beforehand.

Bruce stands and smiles at his wife. “Well it’s Harvey so I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I’m safe”.

“Anyways, we better get going otherwise we’re going to be late. I don’t like being late. Are you sure you’re okay though Harleen? Do you want me to pick up anything for you on your way home?” Bruce asks one final time, moving towards the woman.

“If anyone asks me that one more time? I’m gonna scream” she says with a wide smile on her face. “Ohh...cracker jacks”.

“Cracker jacks it is” Bruce winks. “Everyone else? Have a good night and call me if you need me. I wont be out too long”.

“I assume you’re leaving for patrol from the limo Master Bruce?”

“Yes Alfred. Vic and I will do our patrol right after our meeting with Harvey is wrapped up. You two..” he says, pointing to Mary and Martha. “You take care of your mother. Massage her feet and stuff if she needs it”.

Harley reacts by lifting her legs and exposing them slightly as the blanket rides down. “My stinky feet”. The two girls giggle but remain close to their mother. “Barbara...behave”.

“No promises” she says right back getting up to see the light moving down the driveway. “Ohh, looks like Jason’s ride is here”.

“Ohh crap. I better get a move on”.

The young man jumps up and moves to the door, grabbing his coat before he rushes back to place a kiss on his mother, grandmother and aunt’s cheek. “Love you all”.

“You behave tonight Jason!” Elise shouts out. “And be safe if you’re not gonna behave” Dinah adds. The other women in the group turn to glare at her, especially Barbara who moves to the door to see the young man off.

“You stop encouraging my baby boy to go out and be wild” Harleen seethes.

“What? He’s a handsome boy. Already a heartthrob and that mind of his? He’s gonna be doing it sooner or later”.

“Never. Not my Jason”.

The bickering goes on while Jason goes to the door, trying to put on his coat before rushing out to meet the Cobblepot driver. He was nervous and his arms kept missing the holes made for them until he feels someone’s hands on his back, steadying him out as they try and help him. 

Slowly he calms and manages to put it on correctly, the dainty fingers moving quickly to turn him and work on helping him button it up. “Barbara?”

“Yeah?”

He was surprised to see the girl there, helping him out like this. “I...I guess I just expected it to be Nana Elise or Aunt Dinah” he says with a wry chuckle. That seemed to hurt her, and he could see it in her eyes. “Why don’t I do nice things for you?”

“Ohh, yeah, yeah! All the time Barbara no, I’m sorry. I wasn’t meaning to make it sound like it did”.

  
The redhead smiles sadly and looks down, her hands on the boy’s chest. “I...I know I’ve changed a bit over the years. I know I can be a mega bitch sometimes, even when I really don’t mean it”.

“I know. You’ve been through a lot Barbara”.

Without thinking he reaches down to take her hands and squeeze them, meaning that as a sign of comforting friendliness. Barbara though, she saw it as much more. She squeezes his hands back, hoping against hope that she could communicate the depth of feeling she had for the boy. “Yeah, and you’ve been there through it all. You’re the one thing that hasn’t changed Jason”.

She looks away for a moment before stealing herself for what would undoubtedly take a fair amount of bravery. “Just know that...well, I really...enjoy your date Jason”. She quickly reaches up and pecks him on the cheek, releasing him only a second later before rushing from the room.

Jason was dumbfounded. 

‘I need to know if she’s okay’ he thinks, feeling that something was off with his best friend. ‘Is it possible she has...feelings for me?’

He didn’t know what to make of that thought, and he didn’t have time. He wasn’t going to keep the Cobblepot driver waiting any longer, and he still had a mission to accomplish while on his date. ‘Nah, she can’t have feelings for me’ he thinks, remembering her words. ‘Why would she tell me to enjoy my date? That makes no sense. No. Barbara...she’s just going through some things right now. It’ll be fine’.

**_Office of Mayor Harvey Dent_ **

“Bruce, Vic, thanks for coming”.

“Thanks for having us Harvey” Bruce says, shaking the man’s hand firmly as he sits down in one of the offered chairs. Vic does the same, having no sense of being outclassed by the two much richer and more powerful men. 

They were his friends after all.

Harvey was nervous, and it showed on the man’s face as he leans against his desk, crossing his arms over his chest. “Well, it’s important”.

“Level with me Harv...what’s going on?”

“Maybe I should just...show you?” Harvey asks before nodding to himself, realizing that that was the overall best course of action. “Come on in” he calls out to the side door, which opens almost instantaneously.

Bruce and Vic both turn their eyes to the man who now entered the room, and they could both honestly say that neither were ready for who had entered. “Good evening gentleman”.

“Luthor”.

Bruce stands up, already eager to combat the man who continues to advance on him. Harvey quickly gets in the way though, and he stops the two. “Easy, easy. We’re all friends here”.

Luthor and Bruce continue to eye each other, and Bruce reluctantly respects the fact that the man is refusing to budge and in fact continues to hold his ground.

“You don’t know why you don’t like me do you?”

“I’ve heard enough”.

Lex arches an eyebrow. “What’s the saying from that children’s cartoon? More than meets the eye”.  
  
“Bruce, all I’m asking is for you to hear him out. I don’t like it either but...trust me, we don’t have a choice” Harvey says. 

“What’s going on?” Vic asks, inserting himself into the conversation now.

“Superman” Lex supplies. “Superman is what’s going on. If you gentlemen would take a seat, I can outline exactly what’s going on. Mercy?” he calls out. “Bring the projector and hook it up”.

A woman advances into the room, pushing a steel cart with the required device atop it, but once she enters she refuses to budge any more. Bruce admired her from afar, objectively able to say that she was quite beautiful even under that uniform she wore.

“Mercy?” Lex asks, confused as to why she wasn’t following his order.

The woman just regards him with an upraised eyebrow, causing it to occur to the man. “Ohh...umm, sorry. Have to get used to that. Mercy, sweetie” he begins again. “Can you please set up the projector for me?”

The woman moves into action and smiles at the bald man, working on prepping the device. “Not so much fake sugar there Lex. Just want a little. If you overdo it I know you’re doing it” she teases back. 

Lex sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, smiling all the way and giving the other three men a glimpse into the more human and less corporate side of Lex Luthor. The redhead and the other two men share a glance at each other, though their eyes turn to the opposite side of the room when the screen lights up the wall.

“Thank you sweetie”.

“Anytime Lex” the woman says, refusing to move while coming closer to the man. “Was there...something else?”

Mercy just smiles and points to her lips, enjoying embarrassing her boyfriend in front of Gotham’s most powerful men. 

“Ohh right”. 

Lex leans down and kisses her, blushing like mad as he does so, though Mercy takes after her name and mercifully makes it a short kiss. “Thank you love”.

“You’re very welcome. Call me if you need anything else darling”.

With that, Mercy turns and exits the room, making sure to sway her lips and showcase her plump rear end in her skirt for the bald genius who eagerly follows her with his eyes. When she closes the door, leaving the men in privacy again, Lex has to explain. 

“My umm...asssi...no, lov..girlfriend is quite….”.

He couldn’t find the exact words and he didn’t enjoy being left so off balance. Luckily, he was saved by Bruce’s sour mood. “Save it Luthor and just tell me what it is you want”.

Harvey nods in agreement while Vic remains silent, focused on the opening slide that had already shown itself against the blank wall of Harvey’s office. It was taken a few days ago in front of the U.N building in New York City. When Superman officially announced the Vigilante Registration Order.

“As you all know, Superman, Kal-El or Clark Kent as he is called on Earth, revealed himself to the planet and essentially seized control where he could. At first it was just small things. Saving cats from trees and that kind of variety but soon enough? He started to pick his fingers where they didn’t belong”.

  
Lex clicks the button on the remote control and changes the slide, moving slowly through the pictures that showcased Superman and the heroes who joined him, quick escalation.

“It started to go haywire when Wonder Woman, an Amazon from an island named Themyscira if you can believe it, killed the Croatian president. Soon? They got a taste for it”.

He clicks onto the next one.

“Superman went to Poland and basically liquidated its government. Legally of course, without the nasty business of killing anyone. This was all done with the blessing of the European Union based in Brussels”.

The picture showed Superman, a grim determination on his face, removing a speaker of a nationalist party who dared criticize his heavy handed actions in the Balkans.

“The issue didn’t end there though. The poles fought back and soon? Warsaw was a veritable hot bed of resistance to what the people rightfully saw as imperialism. This was Warsaw when the insurrection began”.   
  
Lex shows them a picture of armed citizens standing alongside soldiers of the Polish armed forces, all manning barricades or working to further the defense of the city.

“This was Warsaw two days later”.

The three men lean forward and look deeply at the picture that Lex shows them after, horror etched on the faces of two of them while Bruce just looks on in stoic determination. ‘I wont let this happen to Gotham’.

“He leveled the whole city. Wonder Woman took out the armed forces fighting in Krakow. Let’s just say that Poland isn’t in much of a fighting state anymore” Lex says, showing an surprising level of disdain over the destruction that had been done to such a historic city. “Warsaw hasn’t looked like that since the Nazis burned it down in ‘44”.

“My God…” Harvey says. 

“God had nothing to do with this. Regardless, Russia and a few other of the Eastern European nations decided to try and take Superman and the League on. This is the footage we got from a war correspondent attached to Russia’s metahuman brigade”.

He clicks play on the video, and it shows an intense battle that was happening right before the frightened cameraman, who chatters in quick and horrified Russian. It showed Superman trading blows with another man who was also floating in the air, his hands encased in red energy. The soldier makes to throw a punch at Superman, though the man of steel easily intercepts it.

He snaps the man’s hand in one instant before bringing his fist up and driving it through the man’s chest the next. The red energy spreads all throughout, encasing their entire bodies in harsh red light. It spreads out, more and more, crackling like electricity as the ground seems to shake. Russians were running each and every way, though the cameraman stands still, just in time to record the blast that spreads outwards before killing the cameraman and cutting the feed.

“That was Lieutenant Colonel Leonid Konstantintovich Kovar, otherwise known as Red Star. He was Russia’s most powerful meta, and Superman ripped through him like swiss cheese. The Russians are still fighting, and many more have rushed to join them, but the city where this fight took place? St. Petersburg? Doesn’t exist anymore”.

“My God...how did we not know about this?” Harvey asks.

“My guess is the government is keeping it a secret” Vic explains. “Ours and theirs, assuming ours is still ours of course”.

“Your redheaded friend here is astute” Lex says. “Superman and the League now effectively control Europe. It’s only a matter of time before they come here, and right now? Our leaders are deliberating if it’s even worth fighting them. We all know they’re going say no...at least, I did”.

“And how did you come across this information?” Bruce asks. “Last I checked? You weren’t exactly involved in politics, aside from being a lobbyist”.

“I know because I offered them a chance to defeat Superman, and they said no” Lex defends himself. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that I know his weakness, and I am in a position to exploit it. I offered this information to the government, free of charge, scout’s honor” he says, crossing his heart with both hands visible. “And they told me that it would serve only as a provocation”.

“And what is this weakness of his?”

“Funny you should ask”. Lex reaches into his pocket, and retracts one of the pieces of synthetic Kryptonite, throwing it over to Bruce.

“Kryptonite. Pieces of his home planet. That’s a synthetic one I was able to make by...well, it’s boring science to be honest. Let’s just say I have over eighty tons of it, ready to use”.

“What are you suggesting Luthor?”

“What I’m suggesting is a partnership” Lex says. “We all know that Superman is going to come for Gotham, sooner or later. We can’t save the United States. Not as a whole and not right now but we can save Gotham, and if we do? We can attract more people, specifically metas who don’t like playing by Superman’s rules, into our fold”.

“How the hell are we going to keep Gotham safe from that thing?” Harvey asks, pointing out the slide with Superman incinerating parts of Warsaw with his eyes. 

“Simple. Lexcorp has brought all that we’d need to do it. I’ve moved…”.

“Your entire company into my city, right under my nose” Bruce says, making the other man feel a little guilty. “It’s not about poaching on your territory Bruce. It’s about survival. Simple as that”.

“....What safety measures are you proposing?”

Lex couldn’t help but feel satisfaction that his plan had paid off so well. Bruce was hooked, and he knew it. ‘At least he isn’t mad. Now? LexCorp can have its own tower here in Gotham’.

He turns to another slide, showcasing his plans in a more detailed and visible way. “I propose we turn Gotham into a fortress. A wall around the city and its environs would serve the purpose of keeping conventional militaries out, militaries that will undoubtedly soon be serving Superman. Conventional weapons and militias and even any metas we already have will defend us on that front. Batman and his merry band of vigilantes and any others we can scrounge up”.

“And Superman?” Harvey asks. “What’s your plan for him?”

Lex just showcases the next slide, which outlined a few prototypes he had in play, all of which involved kryptonite as one of their main power sources.

“All sorts of little toys that’ll keep him away”.

“And how are we supposed to feed this city? Produce all the things they’d need” Vic asks, though it was clear that his tone was less skeptical and more...interested. Bruce was withholding judgement, but he couldn’t help but let that image of Superman destroying Warsaw out of his mind.

“I’ve brought with me the entirety of Lexcorps Hydrophonics division. We’re working on many different avenues but trust me, we can feed and clothe this city. We have the capacity. Especially if Wayne Enterprises joins us”.

All eyes shift to Bruce who seems to be mulling over all of the facts that had been laid out before him. “How long do we have?”

“A year at most. Superman is working slowly. He doesn’t want anyone to catch on, or maybe he’s just enjoying himself. I’m not sure. But we have a little bit of time”.

“How are we going to be able to hide these preparations from him?” Vic asks.

“Surely he has an eye on Gotham”.

Lex just smiles and nods. “He does, but Superman also has another weak point. One I really can’t reveal right now as the person I want to use to exploit is rather...flighty, and I’ve had to promise them a lot to pull what I have planned off”.

“Is it another meta at least?” 

“Not exactly but it is someone with access to powers that makes him...useful”.

“So you’re planning on turning Gotham into a warzone and just leading it like some sort of tin pot dictator huh?” Harvey asks, apparently not having been made aware of the full extent of Luthor’s plans.

“No Harvey. You are, except it’s not going to be a tin pot dictatorship” Lex explains, stopping the man. “What?”

“We’re going to be America’s last stand so we have to be American about it. We’ll be using the constitution. Lord knows Washington isn’t using it anymore” Lex chuckles at his overused political joke though he realizes that nobody else laughs along and it slowly drops away.

“Well, yeah. Harvey, you’re going to be president of the Republic of Gotham”.

“What? Me...I...no, no, no. Not a good idea. This is all, it’s treason!”

“So is giving away the United States to an alien being with the power to split planets” Vic supplies, earning himself a glare from Harvey who wasn’t on board with this idea whatsoever.

“Relax Dent. You’ll be elected. After all, you’re already the voice of the anti-Superman/League resistance. Who else could we possibly choose?” Lex asks while walking up to the man and placing his hand on his shoulder.

“You’re going to be our George Washington Harvey. I really don’t see a way around this for you”.

“What about Bruce?” Harvey asks. “Bruce would be…”.

“No”.

“But why…”.

  
“I’m sorry Harvey but no is my final answer” Bruce says, standing firm with his friend though the sadness was evident in his eyes. Harvey looks away, knowing why the answer was no and ashamed of having tried to run away from this so vigorously. 

“Do we have any other choices?” Vic asks.

“Not that I know of. Who are you by the way?”

“Vic Sage. Wayne family chauffeur”.

“And one of our closest friends” Bruce says, standing up to look at Luthor once again. “Alright Luthor. I’m in”.

Lex smiles, and to everyone around it seems genuine. He reaches his hand out for Bruce to shake, sealing the deal in the most traditional of business’ ways.

“But...dammit Bruce. Me leading a country?”

“I believe in you, and we believe in you” Bruce says, placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder. Vic seemed nonchalant about the whole thing, though his mind was reeling with the fact that he was in a room when a new nation was born. ‘Does that make me a founding father? And if so, can I ban fluoride and soy beans?’

“I...dammit. I guess I should tell Pam she’s going to be the first lady huh?” 

“I think you should” Bruce smiles.

“Now, one more thing” Lex interjects. “This Batman and his clan of vigilantes. We’re going to need to get in contact with them. They’re a necessary part of drawing in others like them”.

“Don’t worry” Vic teases. “I think we can find a way to get him on the horn”.

**_The Iceberg Lounge_ **

“Jason that is hilarious! I can’t believe you got away with that” Jenny says with an open smile while reaching across the table to take the boy’s hand. “Yeah, well, you know how it is. Nobody ever really believed I could do it so they never even suspected me”.

“Sounds like the perfect crime” Jenny teases with a wink, reminding Jason of his secondary purpose here tonight while on his date.

He’d been having an excellent time, and Jenny was more than good company but something felt...off. He couldn’t explain it. His mind just kept going back to Barbara and how she seemed so sad. ‘Dammit...why can’t I be there for her? Why won’t she let me in?’

“Everything going well kiddos?”

Jenny turns her head and smiles up, well rather, eye level with the man who had waddled up to the table. “Yes daddy! Everything is going perfectly” she says, addressing Oswald Cobblepot.

“Yes Mr. Cobblepot. It’s been an excellent night. It really is amazing what you’ve done to this place” Jason compliments the short and stout man who smiles down at him, a hand quickly going to his shoulder. “Thank you my boy, but believe me, Jenny runs most of the day to day operations. I just bankroll it”.

“Daddy” Jenny blushes before looking over at Jason. “He’s exaggerating. He really does an amazing amount of work here. I just do the bookkeeping” she explains.

“Ahh but what a magnificent job of it she does. Anywho, a...umm, well sweetie, a special guest is coming in for a moment. I’d just like you to come and meet her. Would you mind terribly Jason if I borrowed her for a moment?”

This was his opportunity.

“Of course not Mr. Cobblepot. Of course. I would like to excuse myself for the rest room for a moment anyways” he says, pushing out his chair and moving around the side to pull out Jenny’s chair for her. “Ohh...what a gentleman” Jenny blushes.

“Now that is class young Mr. Wayne”.

“Thank you sir. I was taught by the best”.

“I’m very sure. I wont be long at all my friend! Please, enjoy the scenery and the songs. Our next singer is a hot little number” the man teases with a wink before seeing how his daughter frowns. “But not as gorgeous as my little girl is so you keep your eyes were they belong...on her face, understand” the man asks, punctuating his point by bringing up the tip of his umbrella against the boy’s throat.

Jason just smiles and nods, completely unworried. After all, he knew about seven different ways to take the man out right then and there.

“Good lad. You’ve found a nice one Jenny” the man says as the girl moves over to Jason and takes his hands before pecking his cheek. “Sorry about this”.

“Don’t be. We’ve all got jobs we’ve got to do”.

She smiles and nods, reluctantly letting go of his hand and moving off beside her father. Jason was all business instantly though, and he makes a beeline for the bathroom which was to the right of the lounge. As soon as he gets there, he turns to the right and heads up the stairway, reaching down to his watch and clicking on the roving EMP. 

‘Huh, nifty little trick’ he thinks, glad that Lucius was able to help him localize the surveillance jamming equipment. ‘Get to her office quick’. The stairs are easy to ascend, and the layout of the club was already as well known to him as the back of his hand.

He had spent hours studying it after all.

As he gets to the top of the stairs he makes an immediate left and beelines for the office at the end of the hall. He sees each individual security camera click off, as signalled to him by the light’s underneath the lenses clicking off.

“Jackpot”.

The door to Jenny’s office was harder to enter, though not impossible, in fact, not even really hard at all. All it took was some clever work with a bobby pin and it wouldn’t even appear as if it had been tampered with.

Quickly he steps into the office and rushes to the computer. ‘Come on, gotta be quick’. He inserts his usb and watches as the monitor lights up, though this time it showcased a bright yellow R. 

“And bingo was his nameo” he says to himself, feeling a little immature as his sleeper cell virus inserts itself into the computer. He pulls out his phone and quickly texts his mother who was supposed to be accessing all of this information from her laptop on the couch.

“Hey mom. Is it coming through?” he asks.

The text in response is very prompt. “Yup! Getting a whoooole bunch of stuff sugar plum. Just be safe okay? It really goes deeper than we thought”.

That worried him a bit but he had to bite it down. Whatever was going on he’d be able to find out about that later, and if it included Jenny in some sort of way? Well, he’d have to work on that as well.

The computer beeps, letting him know that the virus had finished uploading. He checks the status of the voice recorder bug and sees that that was also online. At any time they’d be able to listen in on the conversations occurring within this room via the laptop. They could also set it remotely to be able to play back certain conversations should the need arise.

He detaches the USB and pockets it, making sure to clean it and wipe it for future use. “Alright, time to head back down”.

He slips out of the office, ensuring that he closes the door behind him before making his way back down the stairs. “Go into the bathroom, then come out” he says to himself, wanting to make sure that he at least seemed plausible. 

He makes it down to bottom of the steps and moves into the bathroom, stopping at the sink to inspect his own reflection. He couldn’t help but smile. “Secret James Bond stuff done and not even a bead of sweat broken”.

He gives himself a thumbs up before moving back out of the bathroom where he sees a nervous looking Jenny waiting.   
  
“Ohh hey, is...is everything alright?” he asks.

She turns to see him and smiles though it was clear it was a fake one that hid the nervousness behind it. “Ohh Jason, there you are, just got here to wait for you to come out. Listen, I am so, so sorry but, I have to do something tonight. It’s really important for my father and I to do this…”.

“Yes Ms. Bertinelli...I understand...Ohh. Jason, my boy, I am so sorry, I had forgotten you were here” Oswald says, nervously standing next to a taller woman who had a fierce expression about her that instantly discomforted him.

“Jason this is Helena Bertinelli. A uhh...business associate of mine” the man says, trying to place the woman though it was clear the word that rolled off his tongue didn’t suit him. Neither did it suit Jenny who looks away, trying to hide the disgust on her face.

“Ms. Bertinelli, this is Jason Wayne, the son of Bruce Wayne and, hopefully if us and our business haven’t destroyed any chances of that, a suitor of my daughter’s”.

“Daddy…” Jenny hisses out with a blush, though she tries to keep it hidden.   
  
The woman focuses in on this, and for the moment ignores Jason. “You should be thankful that you still have a father to tease you about something as trivial as a boyfriend” she says coldly before turning her look on Jason.

“You. You’re not worth anything to me. Get out of my sight and out of the club”.

Without another word she walks forward and shoves past Jason, knocking him into the wall. He allows it and huffs angrily before watching Oswald and Jenny make to follow. They stop when remembering Jason though and Oswald rushes forward to take his hand. “I have a car waiting to take you home my dear boy. I’m very, very desperately sorry about this. Truly. I shall make it up to you and Jenny one of these weekends”.

“That would sound nice, wouldn’t it Jason?” she asks, a hopeful and somewhat frightful tone in her voice. He wasn’t sure if it was there from the woman’s presence or because of what he might think of all of this. 

“I...I hope we have another chance, that you’ll want to see me again”.

He didn’t know what to tell her at that moment, with all the evidence he now had pointing to something sketchy going on within the Cobblepot family or at the very least their business.

“Umm, yeah, sure. Maybe another time” he says in a noncommittal tone, trying to feign displeasure about being able to leave and go over the information they’d found.

Jenny looked positively downtrodden, and so did Oswald.

Without warning she moves forward and places a kiss on his lips, pulling back and moving up the stairs. “Just in case I never get the chance again”.

With that the two disappear up the stairs and into the office, now safely ensconced behind closed doors. Jason moves towards the exit of the Lounge, ignoring the people who pass him and gawk at Bruce Wayne’s son being at the Iceberg Lounge.

“Mom. They’re going to start talking, if not already. I want you to hear what they have to say live” he texts Harleen who instantly replied back with a thumbs up emoji.

“Heading home. Love you”.

“Aww, what happened? Date ended early?”

“Game called on account of business. I guess it’s our job to find what that was”.   
  
He opens the back seat of the limo and sets himself down, signalling for the driver to take him back to Wayne Manor. 

“That’s okay. I really don’t like her much for you any ways if you want me to tell you the truth sweetie”.

“Why not?”

“I just think there’s someone more special out there for you that’s all”.

He knew she was being vague and hiding what she really wanted to say but at that moment he was too tired to really come up with anything that might worm the truth out of her. “Alright mom. I’ll see you soon. Are you okay? Do you need anything?”

“I swear...one more time!”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Non-Con sex scene within. It isn't too much though. Hope you all are still enjoying the story. :) It's a little slow right now I get it, but I'm going to pick it up within the next few chapters.

**_The Batcave_ **

Harleen sat at the computer and eagerly went over all of the files that were contained on it with a fine tooth comb. Shipping manifests, investment folders even receipts. They were all right there for her to see, giving her a glimpse into the mind and workings of Oswald Cobblepot.

She shivers lightly, feeling the bite of the cold against her a moment,

Her eyes widen as she sees a shadow out of the corner of her eye, and she turns abruptly to see what it was moving in the rear of her in the cave. It was nothing, as it usually was. She heaves a sigh of relief, thankful that such occurrences had become rarer and rarer. When she got home, practically every shadow was a creature waiting to pounce on her and tear her apart, and a wide grinning smile was hidden behind every door, waiting for her.

“Easy Harleen” she says, working on calming herself. “Take deep breaths. Focus on what’s in front of you”. She averts her eyes back to the screen and finds herself interested in something of particular note. 

“Bertinelli…”.

“Who?”

She practically jumps out of her skin as the voice behind her breaks out, and she has to grip the sides of the chair to keep herself from rocketing into the air. “Jesus Christ!”

“Mom, crap I’m sorry!”

“Jason…” she says breathing heavily, grasping her chest. “You can’t sneak up on me like that honey bun”. The boy smiles and moves forward to fix the woman’s blanket for her, narrowly avoiding having his hands swatted away by her.

“And you should be upstairs mom. Dad said no cave for you. You’ll be...tempted”.

“I just want to help” she says petulantly. “You’re not going to tell him are you?”

“A bit too late for that”.

Bruce and Vic were walking down the stairs into the cave, and Harleen lowers her head, embarrassed at being caught trying to break her official “grounding”.

“Harleen, you’re not back to one hundred percent yet. I really don’t want you…”.

“Bruce, sitting at a computer and going over the files our magnificent son got for us, I attribute his sneakiness to me by the way, isn’t going to make me sick. I’m getting better puddin’. I promise. But I needed to do something. Being stuck up there? It’s driving me stir crazy”.

Bruce frowns for a moment but eventually a slight smirk breaks out over his lips. “I know if our positions were reversed…”.

“You’d be doing the exact same thing I am right now. So, instead of arguing, let’s just focus on what Jason found” Harleen says, glad that she could so effectively and easily turn the conversation whatever which way she wanted.

Bruce becomes serious and moves up to the screen, scanning over the things that his wife wanted to show him. Jason was leaning against the opposite side of the desk before the computer, his mind feeling like it was a thousand miles away, or rather, topside in the manor.

“Everything alright kiddo?”

“Huh, ohh yeah Uncle Vic. It’s fine”.

The conspiracy theorist didn’t quite believe him, so he presses on. “You sure? I mean, it kind of sucks having a date walk out on you”.

“She didn’t walk out on me!” Jason defends himself rather petulantly. He realizes how that sounds aloud and calms down a bit, crossing his arms over his chest and pretending to look back at the screen. “Ohh sure. Look, it’s fine kid. Trust me. Not the worst thing that could happen”.

“We’ll reschedule”.

“Maybe you shouldn’t”.

That sent Jason for a loop and he turns back to his honorary uncle with curiosity at why he would say such a thing in his eyes. “Why not?”

The man moves up to the group and puts a hand on the boy’s shoulder, wanting to navigate this as easily as he could. “Look, Jason...the life we live, the life we all live, it isn’t an easy one. Especially when it comes to romance. Now, your mom and pop, and your aunt and I are lucky. We each found someone already in this life, so it works. Jenny, for all intents and purposes, is a civilian. How are you going to explain your constant disappearances to her if you get serious?”

That wasn’t an angle the boy had even considered, and he would readily admit he didn’t have an answer. “Unless you’re planning on giving this all up maybe?”

“No...never…” Jason says, refusing to even humor that thought. He looks up at Bruce and Vic can see the idea and desire for his future behind his eyes. “You want to take over for the old man one day”.

It wasn’t a question, but Jason nods to answer it regardless.

“I think you’d make a good Batman one day. Thing is? He has a Batwoman. What I’m saying is Jason, just...be smart about this. Alright? I know what it’s like to be young. Just know we’re all rooting for you, no matter what you choose”.

“Thanks Uncle Vic”.

“Everything okay with you two?”

The two men turn to Harley who had noticed their little heart to heart halfway through and decided to listen in without saying anything. 

“Yeah mom. Everything is fine”.

Bruce regarded his ward with a knowing smile, and gestures back to the screen. “You did good work tonight Jason. Excellent work. If everything is fine, maybe you’d like to see the fruits of your own labor”. The man moves to the side, offering Jason a spot beside his mother who was still seated in the chair.

These moments were becoming more and more common, where Jason was included as more than just a junior member of this team, and treated much more like an equal partner. It filled him with joy to see that the adults he cared so much for saw him as worthy, but it also filled him with trepidation that Barbara hadn’t been accorded the same respect.

‘I feel like I’m leaving her behind’.

He didn’t have time to dwell on that thought as Bruce draws his attention to the screen. “You told your mother that business had interrupted your little date with Jenny Cobblepot tonight right?”

“Yeah” Jason responds. “Her name was Helena Bertinelli”.

“Hmm, that’s a name that hasn’t been heard in Gotham for a long time. Harleen, please pull up all we’ve got on Ms. Bertinelli”.

“You got it”. The blonde’s fingers moved across the keyboard with a speed that only came with getting much practice out of using it. When she’s done and all the desired information is put into the search bar, a multitude of files come up. Police reports, mug shots, newspaper clippings. They were all there. 

Jason sees a picture of the woman, though she was much younger in the photograph than the woman he had seen tonight. He quickly points her out.

“There, that’s here. That’s who I saw tonight”.

“Are you sure sweetie?”

He turns to his mother and nods. “Positive”.

“Helena Bertinelli is the only daughter of the deceased mob boss Franco Bertinelli. He was killed six years ago, right before our confrontation with the Talons. This was after his wife was gunned down by the same man who killed him”.

Bruce reaches out and changes the window on the computer, opening it to yet another file. This picture was of a much larger man, who was obviously an albino. His cruel pinkish eyes peaked out from under thick pure white eyebrows, glaring hatefully at the police who had taken the picture. “Steven Mandragora”.

Jason having already known the man was impressive to both Bruce and Harleen, though neither should have been surprised. “I do spend a lot of time down here” he defends himself. “The computer isn’t just for Call of Duty you know?”.

“That’s my boy” Harleen says while Bruce encourages him to go on. “Well, we know that Steven Mandragora was Carmine Falcone’s underboss when he was ordered to kill Franco Bertinelli. Apparently, the docks were a big part of it?” Jason half says, half asks. “Nobody really knows, but it’s usually a turf thing with these guys” Vic supplies, helping out his nephew.

Jason smiles appreciatively and goes further.

“Anyways, after Falcone was killed by the Court, he stepped up, and since Gotham was in shambles nobody really challenged him on it. He’s been laying low since then. Doesn’t like to go out much. The feds almost had him on a RICO charge three years back but as usual in Gotham, the witnesses disappeared”.

“What does all of this have to Helena Bertinelli?”

“Alot” Bruce supplies. “She fled the city and as far as we know, took residence in a small sicilian town under the protection of Don Luigi Grazini, otherwise known as Mano Nera”.

A picture is brought up of the man from his younger days, and it was clear that he was very much an old believer when it came to the mafia from his file. He shied away from drugs, but murder for hire, prostitution, booze and gambling? Not to mention the run of the mill extortion? Those were his things.

“That means...umm..ohh! The Black Hand!” Harley says, somewhat proud of herself as she wraps her body further into the blanket.

“Your Italian is getting better” Bruce compliments, running a finger down her cheek. Harleen smiles up a him, cooing and leaning into his touch. “Grazie”.

“Flirting aside, what is she doing back in Gotham?”

“I think it’s clear from Cobblepot’s files that she’s working on assuming command of the defunct Bertinelli crime family, and she’s using Oswald to do it” Bruce says, pulling up the shipping manifests. “Jeez..why is it always the docks with this city?”.

Bruce ignores his wife for the moment and continues on. “There has been a direct correlation between Ms. Bertinelli’s arrival back in the city, and the amount of heroin pouring onto the streets. We’ve been really hitting the East Side distributors for years now, sending them almost so far underground as to make it impossible for them to do business. Now, suddenly, there are reports of a new player that wants in. She calls herself, Black Mask”.

A still taken off of a video surveillance feed shows a woman in an immaculate black pin striped and white suit walking through an alley flanked by two guards. The most important thing to note about the woman was the skull mask she wore over her head, obscuring her face.

Harleen leans back and shakes her head. “Bertinelli comes back, someone starts recruiting in her dad’s old stomping ground, someone is selling heroin again like we didn’t even bust them up. Yeah. New player. And this one fits all the boxes. Also, Black Mask, Black Hand”.

“It makes sense, but...what does Mr. Cobblepot have to do with all of this?” Jason asks, not shocked at the revelation of the woman he met that night being an aspiring mob boss.

“Well, going through his dirty laundry reveals that Mr. Cobblepot isn’t clean either” Harleen says. “Internal memorandums about fixing horse races, a few loansharking endeavours here and there, tax evasion huhhh! How evil!” Harleen teases while continuing to go over the list. “Lot’s of petty stuff. Theft and sale of said stolen merchandise. But no murders or nothing like that. Seems like Cobblepot also goes by a codename of his own”.

“What is it?” Jason asks.

“The Penguin” Harleen answers him. “Oswald has been lying about his family’s pedigree as well but, wo really cares about that? The thing is, he’s a low down crook, but he isn’t scum I’d say. Especially not if he’s writing it all down in his diary like a little girl”.

Jason was a little dismayed, but he’d learned to get over being shocked at the fact of people not being who they say they are in Gotham.

“He doesn’t matter” Bruce continues. “At least not on his own, He’s small time. In fact, I might go as far to say that he’s a civilizing counter balance to Steven Mandragora, who is currently suspected to be involved in at least forty murders. No. The problem with Oswald is how Ms. Bertinelli is using his organization to further her own ends”.

“Does she have something on him?” Jason asks. “Or is he working with her willingly?”

“Judging by the conversation we managed to hear in his office? I’m going to say it’s the first” Harleen says grimly. “As for what she has over him? It’s the one thing a parent would do anything to protect”.

With a frown she reaches forward and begins to play the audio that they’d recorded from inside of the Iceberg Lounge’s office. Jason leans in to listen intently.

“Stop. Please, none of this is nece…”

“It is necessary. Do you want to know why Oswald? Because I say it is”.

It was clear who was in in this exchange, and the gurgling of the man who had only so warmly welcomed Jason into his club mere hours ago could be heard.

“Let him go! Please! Please!”

“Ohh Jenny Cobblepot. Little crying Jenny Cobblepot. How weak you look right now. I was in your situation once, and I didn’t beg. No. Someone like me? We never beg. But don’t worry, I won’t kill your pathetic, snivelling little freak of a father”.

The sound of a thud could be heard as she drops the man, letting him fall to the ground to gasp for breath. Jason felt his eyes close in anger, wishing he could’ve stayed to avert this. “Now. Say thank you” Helena cruelly teases.

“Daddy are you…”.

“I SAID THANK ME!”

The woman’s voice was beyond cruel, and he heard Jenny cry out in fear. “Th...thank you..”.

“Thank you who?”

“Th...than...thank you...B..Black Mask”.

They end the audio recording as Jason looked positively feral with rage. “Dammit”.

“It’s not your fault Jason. You couldn’t have known”.

“I was right there. I could’ve done something” the man says. Bruce walks forward and places his hands on his son’s shoulders, gently trying to calm him. “You couldn’t. Not then son. But now? Now we have a chance to do something”.

It took a few seconds, but Jason is quick to realize that that much was at least true. “What’s the plan pops?”

Bruce smiles, happy that Jason could remain goal orientated when necessary. “Things are developing in Gotham” he begins, remembering his meeting with Lex Luthor and Harvey. “And...things need to be done”.

“What’s going on puddin’?” Harleen asks worriedly. “Is this about your meeting tonight? What happened?”

Bruce remains quiet, looking to Vic for support before realizing that there was nothing he could gain from the man that he himself didn’t have to tell his wife and children. This was hard, regardless of how you cut it, and the path they were being forced to walk? It was even more precarious. Perhaps more so than it had ever been before.

“We met with someone to discuss a problem…”.

**_Ace Chemicals_ **

“Whooeeee isn’t this a great place?”

The Joker was swinging from catwalk to cat walk, perched nefariously above the bubbling green brew that had given birth to him and Dick in this very same place, holding onto nothing but a rattling chain.

He let’s go, slamming his feet down against the catwalk, causing the steel to shake with the force of the impact. Deacon Blackfire and Barbara however, seemed much less convinced, and the woman grips her son tighter in fear.

  
Joker notices, and with a sickly smile he approaches to move onto his knees, pinching the young boy’s cheek. Before he could even utter a word, Blackfire’s staff comes down on his wrist, causing the clown to let out a howl of pain and jump back.

“Keep your hands off of our lord!” the older man warns, a menacing glare in his eyes that was easily replicated in the woman’s, while James Jr. just looked up with a snide air of superiority. 

‘Impudent brat!’ he seethes mentally, though outwardly he maintains a sense calm, and even utters an apology. 

“Sorry! Didn’t mean to touch the holy tabernacle or whatever the little tyke is. Hehe, jeez, everyone is a critic”.

The man had changed into his signature purple tuxedo, though this one was a little more ragged after years of being left within Ace chemicals. Still, he wore it with pride. 

Just like his smile.

“Ahh this place. Takes me back you know? Closed down years ago but like a bad case of the clap it just wont go away. Hehe”.

“Why did you bring us here clown? Are you guiding us to destiny, or attempting to lead us to our doom? I can assure you that the lord is with us and shall not allow you…”.

Joker places a gloved finger over the man’s lips and shushes him loudly, waving his other finger back and forth. Slowly he brings the finger away and gestures for some of the men he himself had recruited to move forward. “Chucko! Laurel, Hardy! Those are my good men!” he says, moving up towards the now clown makeup sporting goons.

“I want you to go outside and bring in whatever is in those trucks we stole. I personally think they’re party gifts! And our friends here? They’ll probably really love party gifts. Now, go be good boys and go get them” he teases, shooing them off.

“I don’t trust this clown husband” Barbara whispers.

“He seems stupid. Clowns are supposed to be funny. He’s just boring” James says from beneath the two, causing Joker to stand stock still, his back to them. The three didn’t see it, but their followers assembled beneath them on the main floor of the abandoned factory did, and they were horrified. 

“Boring?” he asks, turning to slowly advance on the family.

Even Blackfire was frightened by the evil he saw gleaming behind the man’s eyes. The clicking and readying of machine guns from the floor below and the catwalks opposite them did nothing to deter the clown’s advance on the little boy, who looked up in fear at the realization he might have said something wrong. Something very wrong.

“Let me tell you about...boring” Joker says, breaking out into a smile, though it was made all the more menacing by the fact that the licking flames in his eyes hadn’t disappeared. 

“Boring, is sitting up top in this city and paying taxes. Following the rules, being a good little boy or girl”. Joker moves onto his knees again, once more at eye level with the boy. Barbara makes to back up, wishing to avoid the man though she finds she cannot move any more. They’d run out of catwalk, and the only thing behind her was a rusted steel bar that kept her from plunging into the acid below. 

“No. I am anything but boring little God”.

The rage vanishes once more and abruptly he stands up, facing Blackfire again. “Anyways, my guys are bringing in some more treats we lifted off of those nasty wasty gangsters. Imagine, unloading a truck in the middle of the night? What were they thinking?” 

He descends into laughter again, slapping his knees as the adults before him heave a sigh of relief.

“You call yourself the Joker. Is this how you wish to be addressed?” Blackfire asks, already knowing the answer but wishing to move the conversation onto the topic of strategy. “One and the same” he adds with a wink.

“And what reason do you have to help us?” the prophet presses on. “You and your son have refused to honestly kneel before our lord, yet...you still serve us. Why?”

“EHHHHH! Wrong. We’re working together. Partners. For now. Even God needs to make friends with some demons when he’s walking through Hell’s mean streets don’t he? As for why….well, I’m not quite sure” he says, keeping his cards close to his chest. He knew exactly why he was helping these religious fanatics.

“I just don’t like Wayne Tower. It’s an eye sore, should’ve remained destroyed from the get go. And seeing as how you’ve already been so kind to my son and I in...trading, certain pieces of merchandise…”.

Blackfire casts his eyes away, finding the immediate price for the clown’s assistance to be vulgar and downright evil, though he had no choice in making it. When he first laid his eyes personally on Gotham, and took in how much it had changed, he knew that he’d need someone to assist him. 

Still...it left a horrid taste in his mouth that the power of faith alone was not enough. 

“Well, yes. I think we can continue our partnership”.

“And what exactly are you giving us at this moment in return?” Blackfire asks. 

“Why, a safe haven!” Joker exclaims, spreading his arms out over the factory as if that explained everything. “Also my personal stocks I had hidden away in here...hold on, one second, let me get an exact accounting” he teases, biting his tongue lightly and fishing through his pockets to retract a notebook and glasses. 

He places the glasses over his eyes and begins to read, exaggeratedly as was the usual for every single one of his movements. “Ahh here we are. Fourteen rifles, three boxes of pineapple grenades, forty whoopie cushions, eighty four blunt force objects and ahhh...the coup de grace. Seventeen barrels of my patented Joker gas. Guaranteed to liven up any party!”.

“What does this gas even do?” Barbara asks curiously. Joker smiles and makes to answer, though he is cut off by a raised hand from the Deacon, who turns to his wife and takes her hand. “I have seen it. You do not wish to see it. I do not wish our lord to see it. Simply trust me in that it will be...effective”.

Barbara’s eyes widen as something occurs to her. “The women...were they…”.

“Moving on” Joker says, surprisingly doing something on behalf of Blackfire as he throws the notepad away into the darkness, allowing it to flutter down and burn away in the acid. “Aside from protection and all that? Nothing...yet”.

“What else are you suggesting?” 

“You’re going to need something else” Joker says, leaning against the handrail. “Something that should really help out against those pesky do gooders. The last time someone tried to take this city, they couldn’t pull it off because there were too many damn do gooders. Now, my Joker gas should help out with that but...to my eternal shame…”.

Joker casts an arm over his eyes and indeed feigns shame, though it was clear he was doing it only for dramatic effect. “It doesn’t spread very far...and it doesn’t last one. I’ve been locked away so long I never quite got how to make it work in a more widespread variety” he explains, pinching his chin and then suddenly snapping his fingers.

“But I know who caaaaaan!”

“Who can what?” Barbara asks. 

“Make it more dangerous and widespread you nincompoop!” Joker seethes, scaring them once again before he continues on. “In my cozy home for the past six years, I recently met this guy. He’s the reason ole’ Dicky boy and I are out believe it or not. Anyways, he had a zinger! It made everyone afraid”.

“And this man...is he available to us?”

“Not yet unfortunately. Probably locked up back in Arkham or something but...we can find him. And when we do? We break him out. Simple as that”.

“How would we find this man?”

Joker shrugs and pulls a cigarette and a lighter from his pocket, taking a drag on it and looking off into the distance, his mind elsewhere at that very moment. “Give me a few days. I’ll come up with something. Until then? I don’t know”.

He blows out a long string of smoke directly into Blackfire’s face, moving off of the catwalk with a relaxed aloofness that startled them. “Give a sermon or something. I’m gonna go check on my boy. See how he’s enjoying your...tribute or whatever you called it”.

Joker descends the stairs before making an abrupt right into an adjoining hallway, disappearing from the view of Blackfire and his flock.

“Husband...I’m afraid”.

He turns to the redheaded woman and smiles, brushing his fingers through her hair before smiling down at James Jr. Each looked horribly unsettled by their recent interaction with the Joker, but he knew it couldn’t be helped. The man was the only one they could trust to help them, though trust was a relative term.

“Don’t be my love. Don’t be. Faith. Have faith in James and his true father on high that they will lead us through this. For now? We will allow this heathen to assist us, though it is clear he is doing so for his own ends. What they are matters not. The book of Revelation’s is at hand, where all of man’s work done with evils hands will crumble away to nothing”.

He leans in and kisses her before moving off to the front of the catwalk, wanting to address those who had followed him out of the tunnels beneath Gotham.

“My brothers and sisters. Fear not, for we have reached Bethlehem where our hope may truly be born” he begins. “From here we shall advance upon our enemies, and crush them beneath the heel of our holy feet, just as God promised that the son of man would crush the serpent!”

They were still uncomfortable, but it was clear that each and every one of them was secure in the fact of their impending destiny and the part that they would play in it. 

“We have had to make sacrifices already. I know this, and it pains me. It pains our lord too. Our sisters shall be missed, though they go on knowing that they played an integral part in the story of our salvation! They shall never be forgotten, as long as we shall live as saints in our memory! We ready ourselves for our great crusade against Gotham and the Wayne family. We ready ourselves to crush the demon and all that she lov…”.

Down the hall, Joker had already put the man out of his mind, and worked as hard as he could to put his words out just the same. “Kook. Hehe, and that’s coming from me”.

He moves down the hall to where the foreman’s office was, where he and Dick had set up their living quarters aside their on personal HQ.

When he gets to the door, he sees a sock, holey and dirty beyond imagination hanging on the doorknob. He smirks for a second and leans his ear against the door, hearing the sounds of two bodies coming together. 

“Yoohoo, Jester! You busy in their sport?”

He doesn’t receive an answer though, so he simply straightens his back and reaches towards the door. “As you father young man, it is my job to check in on you from time to time, so I’m coming in anyway!”.

He pushes the door open and steps inside, closing it behind him as soon as he entered. The sight he encounters before him was fully expected. Dick was naked from from the waist down, his pants pooled around his ankles and his shirt unbuttoned to expose his muscled and toned body, of which he’d undoubtedly gotten from his long stint in prison.

He was standing before a desk, on which lay one of the women that Blackfire had offered up as a sacrifice to the two. Her dress was undone, and while her body was dirty and covered in grime from years underground, it didn’t seem to matter a bit to Dick.

In fact, the dirt was even more highlighted now that her skin had become as pale as theirs was, and her face was to the side, twisted into a grotesque smile that had set in with the firmness of rigor mortis. Light breathy laughs escape her lips, and her wide eyes stared blankly at the door as Dick continued to thrust into her.

Even her hair, atop her head and above her womanly entrance, had changed color to the vibrant green that was on their own bodies.    
  


“Ohh, hey dad” Dick says breathily, grunting as he increases his hold on the woman’s hips and continues to thrust. The boy was momentarily distracted by the rhythmic bouncing of the woman’s ample breasts, and only paid half a bit of attention to his mentor’s entrance.

He gives a few more deep thrusts before slamming into the woman one last time, causing her to give a moan of pleasure, her mind now as warped as her body had become. Dick moans loudly as he shoots his seed into her, spewing it out without any other concerns more than claiming this girl as his own.

He pumps a few more times before he begins to retract, pulling his member from her with a wet sound of suction caused by how slick he had become with her juices. His limpening member spews one last spurt against the thatch of wet green hair, coating it even more. 

“Ohh Dickie my boy. I should’ve give you the talk about safe sex. I’m not ready to be a grandpappy” he teases, not meaning a word of it.

The younger man just shrugs. “I couldn’t help it. Good deal you made pops. Other one hasn’t even been broken in just yet” he teases with a thrust of her head over his shoulders while he works to pull up his pants.

“So...I’m assuming the gas worked?” Joker asked, having had a method to such madness.    
  


“Ohh yeah. It worked alright. As soon as I gave her a whiff, she was all over me, then as the changes started happening, she went a little still. She still alive anyways?” Dick asks, looking over at the girl and seeing the light rises and falls of her chest. 

“Yup. Question is, will she live too much longer? If she does, well, you’ve got yourself a girly friend there Dickie boy. If not...well, we’ll just have to tweak the formula”.

Dick looks back at the other girl who still sat with her back to the wall, hands and mouth bound to keep her from running or screaming. “Well that was awfully kind of you to leave some for your old man” Joker says.

“Anytime. Now, what did Moses out there say?”

“Ohh the usual fire and brimstone kind of stuff. Butttt...we have a semblance of a plan being worked out. Might require us to go back to Arkham and fetch the friend who broke us out but otherwise? We’re on track to have some fun”.

“I still don’t understand the sudden hard on for Wayne” Dick says accusingly, throwing a blanket over the jokerized woman. “You’ll understand soon my boy. Soon it’ll all make sense. We just gotta get these bible for brains a little stronger and then they’ll do most of the work for us. So don’t worry little Jester, I’ve got a plan! But...for now”.

Joker turns his glare on the bound girl who mumbles out, trying to scream. He can see the fear in her eyes, and for some reason that only makes it better for the man. Dick doesn’t even leave, instead he moves back towards the woman he had already sated himself with and decides to watch. Joker notices this as he works on removing his belt.

“Ahh, wanna get a lesson from the pro then? Well, watch the master” he teases before looking back at the girl. “As for you...well, let’s see if you can see the funny side”.

**_Wayne Manor_ **

She was looking into the mirror, brushing her teeth while readying herself for bed. She wasn’t particularly enthusiastic, though she would counter with a challenge for you to find anyone who enthusiastically brushed their teeth.

She leans down to spit in the sink, though when she does, she doesn’t move, continuing to grip the sides of the porcelain and breath deeply. Too much was going on in Barbara Gordon-Wayne’s head. She couldn’t think straight.

She swallows and then spits out her saliva, knowing that she should probably talk to someone. ‘Harleen...no, mom. No, you have a mom! She tried to kill you, and she’s still out there’.

Her anger was right back where it was before, and she knew that she should go and work out to blow off steam. She hadn’t gotten a chance to go on patrol with Bruce due to him having that impromptu meeting.

‘Shame. Would’ve been great to pummel some arrogant punk’s face in’.

She looks up, making herself ready to reach into the medical cabinet tucked away behind the mirror. She stops rapidly, her eyes focusing on the figure standing behind her. She could only take in the sight for a moment, but she knows who it is.

“Dad!” 

James Gordon was standing there, though it was naturally different from how he was in life. His skin was pale grey, almost no color left in it at all, and his eyes were completely white. He still had his red hair, the hair he’d passed onto her, and his facial scruff. He was wearing some sort of red shirt or suit? She couldn’t tell, and she rapidly turns to see him better.

When she does, she finds that she is alone in the bathroom. She turns her head rapidly to the left and right, looking for the man desperately. 

“Dad?”

She calls out to him while advancing on the shower, roughly yanking back the curtain. “Daddy?”

He was nowhere to be found, at least not in the bathroom, or anywhere else. Slowly she sits on the toilet and places her head in her hands, beginning to sob loudly. “Daddy…”. She couldn’t have imagined it could she? It felt like he was there. She could feel him! She knew he was there.

“Am I going insane?” she asks herself, fighting to dry her tears that she was ashamed of having in the first place. “Get a grip. He’s dead Barbara. Dead. You watched those fuckers gun him down”.

She takes a washcloth and wipes her eyes, and slowly she tries to calm her breathing once again. A knock on the door sets her off, and she glares at it as if the offending party could see or sense her anger through the wood.

“What?!”

“Woah, umm...easy. It’s me. Jason. Barbara...are you okay?”

She calms down at hearing the boy’s voice, and she bites back her tears and attitude for his sake. “I’m fine Jason. I’m fine. Just...go to bed”.

She hears nothing but silence on the other side, and for a moment she’s hurt that he might actually have listened to her. “No you’re not” he says, obviously knowing better. “I heard you crying, and calling out for your dad”.

“It could’ve been Bruce” she defends herself weakly.

“No. You love Bruce like a father, but...I know when you’re talking to him and when you’re not. Trust me”.

This angered her, and she stands up roughly, marching straight to the door and yanking it open to allow herself to come face to face with the boy who was already dressed in his pajamas as well. She hated that he made her stop with how cute he looked, almost effortlessly.

But her anger wasn’t quenched that easily.

“You think you’re so damn smart huh?” she asks, advancing on him until they were practically chest to chest “You think you know everything about me huh? Well you’re fucking wrong”.

“Am I?” he asks, standing his ground in a much more polite way than Barbara was. He refused to get angry with her, ever, and that infuriated her beyond reason. ‘I deserve it! I’m yelling at him! Screaming at him and he did nothing wrong! Why doesn’t this fucker scream at me? Tell me he hates me because I’m a bitch? I have it coming’.

That was the last thing her heart wanted him to do, but the masochistic side of her wanted to be punished. For everything. Failing her father, snapping at Jason, the disappointed and sad looks she caused in her adoptive mother and father’s eyes.

“You’re an asshole, you know that? A grade A asshole sometimes”.

“Why? Because I care about you? Because I refuse to let you self destruct? Cut the crap Babrara. I know you like to play stupid but you’re too smart for this”.

She hit him. 

She’d never be able to tell you why she did it, but she knew that absolutely hated the utter lock of shock in his eyes as her palm made contact with his cheek. Instant regret and horror fill her at what she’d just done, and Jason...he was just staring at her blankly, a red handprint on his cheek.

“Jason...ohh my god...Jason..”.

He doesn’t say anything and instead makes to pull away from her, an act she couldn’t allow, not at this moment. The tables had turned, and now she was the one desperate to reach him. She grasps his arms and pulls him back, trapping him by wrapping her arms around his midsection and crushing her body to his. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, goddamit I’m so fucking sorry”.

Her tears were going again, and despite the slight pain that lingered on his cheek he hugs her back. “Shh...just, stop crying. It’s not fair when you cry”.

She tries. She really tries, especially since he asked her too.

“I’m...I’m...I’m….”.

He senses that she was beginning to hyperventilate, and he begins to rub her back lovingly before kissing her forehead. “It’s alright just...don’t ever do that to me again”.

Without warning he scoops her up in his arms, carrying her bridal style to his room along with him, though she wasn’t sure of that at the moment. All the redhead could do was press her cheek to his chest and curl her fingers around the fabric of his shirt. 

“Where...where are we going?”

“To my room where we are going to sit down and you are going to tell me what’s going on”.

“Can I...I spend the night with you Jason?” she asks, still feeling the chill up her back she had gotten from receiving that ghostly vision of her father.

“It’s been years since you did that Barbara. It’s a little different now from when we were kids. I don’t think Bruce or Harleen would like that” Jason protests.

“Please. Just for tonight. I don’t want to be alone”.

“Do you promise to talk to me? I mean, honestly talk to me. Tell me what’s going on and why you’re acting so strange?”

“I promise”.

Jason sighs and nods. “Alright. One night”.

**_Bertinelli Compound_ **

“Make sure you understand Oswald. Otherwise...well, let’s just say that Jenny might like to go for a swim. Get it any way you need to. I’ll send a few of my guys to help you out. Get it done you fat piece of shit”.

Helena hangs up the phone at her desk, or rather, her father’s old desk. It was remarkable to her how much of the mansion had been preserved. She almost didn’t see the difference from now to her childhood.

It was there though.

  
The warmth was completely gone and now the brick home that contained all of her happy memories was empty and cold. She knew why. Her father and mother were dead. There would never be laughter her. Not again.

She stands and moves over to the window, ruminating on all the years she’d spent away from Gotham. ‘Maybe I should have stayed away’. She dismisses that thought as illogical. After all, there was a vendetta and letting something like that go was against the very blood that coursed through her veins. 

“Ms. Bertinelli?”

“What did I tell you about that name?”

The man at the door shrinks into himself as he sees the woman’s shapely form outlined against the window, only added to by the ethereal glow of the moon.

“Ohh, I beg your forgiveness. Black Mask” the man manages to stutter out. “Good. You may enter”.

The man walks in slowly and moves to the desk, waiting for the woman to address him again, which would be his cue to tell her what she wanted to know and what he was supposed to report to her.

“What is it Thomasino?”

“We sent the guys to Falcone’s grave like you wanted” he begins. “And?”

“They did what you asked”.

“Good. Traitors aren’t supposed to rest in peace. Carnine? He’s the worst of traitors. A genuine Judas Iscariot walking amongst us. A ghost, in life and now I hope a restless spirit in death. Vai a farti fottere zio Carmine”. She makes the sign of the cross, almost as if she believed an appeal to God would seal the curse she wished upon the dead man’s soul.

“Is there anything else?”

“Yes Black Mask. They’re sending the message now. Mandragora will most likely respond to it, if he’s not a coward”. The made man felt a bit of courage creep into his heart at that, always relishing a fight. 

“He will” Helena says. “He is a fat dishonorable piece of shit but one thing I can assure you he is not is a coward”.

She turns around and looks back down at her father’s desk upon which a picture sat. It was of her, her mother and father, and it had been taken during the happy days of her childhood. The days when she knew nothing of her father’s work except that he was a powerful man who loved her and her mother very much. 

“It takes a very brave man indeed to kill a man right before his daughter, especially if you leave that daughter alive”.

Her eyes move up and lock onto the man intently, studying his reaction. “Soon, very soon, Gotham city will remember the Bertinelli name. And it will never forget it”.

She looks back at the picture and smiles. “I’m going to carve your names into his flesh mama. Papa. I promise”.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas first and foremost. This year has been hard on everyone and I encourage you to take this day to have a breather. Whatever you are, whatever you believe, republican or democrat, christian or atheist, man or woman, I want you all to have an amazing day with your families. And if you can't spend it with them, well, I'll be posting another chapter tomorrow hopefully so I'd be honored if you spent it with me, cozied up on a couch and reading the world I'm crafting that I hope you continue to enjoy! God bless you all. I wish you nothing but love and prosperity in this coming year.

**_Room of Jason Wayne_ **

“Cozy?”

From her position, laying her head on his chest, Barbara would have to say that she was most certainly cozy. It had been years at this point since she was this close to Jason, and as she threaded her leg over his and deeply inhaled his freshly showered scent she realized just how much she missed it.

“Uhhm. Very”.

She looked it, and a serene smile spread itself over her lips. That was comforting to the boy who held her close. He leans down and kisses the top of her head lovingly, rubbing her back as he does. “Now, are you going to talk to me? That is why we came here after all”.

“Nuh. Sleep”.

“Barbara..” he warns teasingly.

The girl doesn’t say anything else in that moment but she does slowly look up. He sees the sadness in her eyes, and he reaches up with his free hand to gently rub his thumb across her cheek. All trace of them teasing one another was gone, and in his eyes remained only concern.

“Barbara, talk to me...please”.

“I saw my father...in the mirror tonight”.

She was afraid of telling the boy that on the off chance that he might have changed a bit in regards to humoring her. In the past he would’ve instantly believed her and tried to comfort her on the subject. Now? She wasn’t sure. She knew she sounded crazy.

“Did he say anything?”

She smiles to herself and lets out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding in. ‘Some things don’t change’.

“He didn’t say anything. I only got a quick glimpse and like a horror movie, when I turned around? He was gone” she confesses. “Am...am I crazy?”

“I don’t think so no” Jason says. “I’ve always been...afraid here. Well, maybe not afraid. It’s not the right word to use but discomforted? No, that’s not either. My point is, I love Wayne Manor. It’s my home but there’s always this little tingling on the back of my neck when I’m alone here. I think it’s because of Bruce maybe”.

“What do you mean?” Barbara asks confusedly.

“Well, this entire house can sometimes feel like a memorial. A memorial to what he lost, and us? Well, we’re the things he gained, so those two ideas in one house clash together and maybe they rustle up some things that should stay buried”.

She chuckles to herself and reaches up to his cheek, rubbing his skin with her hand gently. “You’re a goof”.

“Yeah. Maybe”. He reaches up and places his hand over hers before turning her hand away from his face and interlocking their fingers together. Barbara felt her heart beat even faster, and she knew that the time was rapidly approaching that if she didn’t tell him how she was really feeling, she would never be able. 

Still, she’d give herself just a few more minutes to prepare herself. “Jason...my mom…”.

“Barbara I know she’s still out there” he says, a little more harshly than he’d intended. He sees the hurt on her face, and rapidly calms down. ‘Take this slow and gentle Jason. Slow’.

“I know she’s still out there sweetie” he begins again, though in a much sweeter tone. “But so are you. You can’t let vengeance chew you up Barbara. And I’m not going to let you do that to yourself. Look at Bruce. Look how happy he is now. Do you think he would’ve wound up this way if he didn’t let people in and just focused on going after Joe Chill? No. Now, he may be an uptight stick in the mud sometimes, but he’s still happy”.

Barbara wanted to lash out at the boy again but the still very fresh memory of the look on his face when she slapped him lingered, as did her promise to never do such a thing again. THAT she knew would linger forever.

“He’s trying to tell me something Jason” she explains evenly. “He can’t rest until she’s dealt with. I have to find her, and I have to…”.

“What? Kill her? Would that change anything? Would that bring your dad back?”

“No but it would be justice!”

Jason squeezes her hand gently and looks deeply into her eyes. “Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all”.

“Don’t quote scripture at me” Barbara says, blushing despite her words. She couldn’t explain why, but she absolutely loved when he did just that. It made her feel safe when he could just come up with a bible verse to explain away or give her perspective on things.

Jason just keeps going and smiling, knowing his tactic was working.

“Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “vengeance is mine, I will repay” says the Lord”.

“So I should just leave it to your magical sky daddy then huh Jason?” she asks, hoping to goad him if only just a bit. He doesn’t miss a beat and just nods an affirmative to her question. “Yes. That’s exactly what we’re supposed to do”.

“Dammit…”.

“Barbara, in this family, we focus on justice. Doing what’s right. I don’t think killing your mother is going to do anything to make what happened that day in the diner right”. He couldn’t help but reach out to brush his fingers through her hair. She just cuddles in closer to him, allowing herself to be comforted by the rhythmic beating of his heart. “It’s what he would want”.

“No it isn’t”.

  
His words were always so gentle with her, even when he was telling her, and rightfully so, that she was dead wrong. “I’ll help you find her though. And when we do? We’ll bring her in. Let the city put her on trial for what she did. Her and that Deacon guy”.

“You’ll help me?” 

“Of course, but only to keep you from losing yourself and also because I love you. Remember that Barbara. Leaning on us? On your family? It doesn’t make you weak. Family makes you strong”.

She knew that she wouldn’t be able to fight him on that fact, so she doesn’t even try and instead she just rests her head back on his chest. 

“Tell him”.

She knew the voice was her father’s. What she didn’t know was if her mind was conjuring it up, or if he was really talking to her. Specter or imagined, she knew that what her dad had to say was the truth.

“Jason...do you think you’ll see Jenny again?”

“I don’t really know to be honest” he says, not sure why the issue had come up but not exactly unhappy that it had. He wanted to just talk with her again. Like they used to.

“I mean, she’s nice and all, and her dad is too but at the end of the day? They’re still criminals who’ve earned their money through being a criminal enterprise. I don’t think it would be right”.

“Good. I don’t want you to see her again”.

“You know, you’re the...third person to say that to me” he chuckles. “Uncle Vic told me that she wouldn’t understand me and well, our night life. He told me that it wouldn’t work because of that reason and that alone so maybe I should listen and if I ever want to date ,find someone who would. Like how mom and dad got together”.

“Someone like me?”

He looked down at the girl and watched as she leaned against him and pressed her lips against his. He bolts up straight in the bed as soon as they touch, as if electricity had gone through him. Barbara herself was moved onto her knees atop the bed, looking down at him in worry.

“Barbara!” he says, partly scandalized as his hands move out to her shoulders in an attempt to keep her from repeating her actions. She looked positively broken, and her eyes were wide in fear of what she had done, and what she felt she might’ve lost.

Jason casts one look over her, and before he knew it he had leaned back in to capture her lips himself. She coos out as his arm wraps around her lithe waist and crushes her body into his own, their lips savagely moving against each other. Jason’s sought to conquer the redhead’s and Barbara’s sought to be conquered, and thus she eagerly submitted to the sweetness of his taste.

She plants herself in his lip, gently rubbing her rear end against his crotch, causing his member to harden in his pajama pants. Neither stop, the animalistic and primal desire for one another mixing with their hormones. 

She presses him back for a moment, just enough to reach down for the hem of her shirt to begin pulling it up. Jason was in awe, and his heart was beating faster than it ever had before. He watches as her toned belly is exposed to him, and he can’t help but reach out to trail his fingers over her skin to just on the undersides of her breasts. “Barbara…”.

She keeps going and pulls the fabric up over her chest. 

As soon as he sees her, naked from the waist up before him, the protests that were on his lips die away. He sees her perfect pale, almost milky skin, which was dotted with freckles on her chest and a bit on her shoulders. He had never known that before.

She leans down to work on pulling his shirt off, a blush covering her face as they did something so...brazen. “Am...am I pretty Jason?”

He doesn’t answer and instead lets her pull off his shirt, lifting his arms to assist her as he does. When his body is exposed to her, Barbara has a very similar reaction to the taut musculature he had developed through training. ‘Ohh…’.

She runs her hands up and down his abs and then his pectorals, massaging and feeling his skin in such a way as if she was trying to commit it to memory. “You’re beautiful Barb…” he admits breathily, causing her to stop to stare into his eyes.

“The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen I think”.

She reaches forward and takes his hand in her own, guiding him to her chest and resting them there. “Touch me. Prove it to me”.

She leans down again to kiss him, their bodies moving against one another in a mimic of the perfect synchronism that they had with one another during training. She refuses to detach herself from his lips, though it was clear that Jason had plans of his own. He flips their two bodies so that he is laying above her, though he supports his own weight with his hands.

Barbara continues to coo out under him, especially when the boy switches to her neck and begins to suckle on her pulse point. “Mmm...yes baby. Right there”.

She reaches down to Jason’s flannel pajama pants and pushes them down as best as the can to expose his rear end to the chill. She runs her hands up the length of his back as soon as that was down, though she was still very considerate of the one she loved atop her.

She moves her hands back down, giving his butt a gentle squeeze before leaving there to grasp the blanket. She pulls it up over the both of them, sealing them in on the bed with nothing more than one another, with no goal other than coming together as one.

**_GCPD Headquarter_ **

“Anything else Harvey?”

“Yeah. The most important thing” the detective says with a smirk which only causes Renee to pinch the bridge of her nose. “Why do you always leave that for the very last second?”

“Because I know it gets to ya”.

“Well mission accomplished Harvey. I’m annoyed. What is it you wanted to show me?” she asks. The man steps forward and retracts a photo from his jacket pocket and hands it over to her. “Took this at the crime scene myself”.

“Why wasn’t I notified?”

“Look closer commish. It ain’t a murder. Ya can’t murder someone who’s been dead for six years”. Montoya was confused but finally she takes a look at the photograph, and what she sees horrified her. Bones. A full skeleton had apparently been exhumed and pieced back together with wire. 

It had been placed in front of the Iceberg Lounge, a clear warning written in red spray paint behind where the skelton was hung. “I couldn’t get to him. I will get you” she says, reading off the words. 

“Any idea on who the body belongs too?” she asks while putting the photograph down, shaking at the macabre display. “Yeah. Docs ran a few tests on sight and it’ll take a while for the results to come back but we’re pretty sure that there’s a link between Carmine Falcone’s empty casket and this”.

“So it’s an old mob thing” Renee muses. “But who’s behind it? Far as I know there isn’t anyone left in Gotham besides Mandragora”.

Harvey nods and leans against the desk, apparently thinking over the woman’s words. “Not really no. I mean, there’s small time guys, but ever since ole’ Don Bertinelli got whacked before the Owl war, Mandragora is the only one left from the Italian side of things”.

“Who would have enough beef with Carmine Falcone AND Steven Mandragora that they would dig up the old guys body to put on a show?” Montoya asks, reaching across her desk for the pack of cigarettes.

She lights it and shakes away the match, taking a long drag on her cigarette as she does.

“Not really sure right yet commish. Like I said, not many guys left around the ole’ organized crime game and the ones who are? They’re nothing but small time. Hell, between Mandragora and Batman I don’t know whose cleaning up the streets better”.

“Easy” Renee says. “Batman. That bastard Mandragora? He’s no better than Falcone. He kills and extorts just the same. Difference is that he killed everyone else so there’s precious few left to oppose him. Probably why gangland killings have been down so much”.

“For now”.

She looks down at the picture again, and she knows that Harvey was right. Something was about to happen, and someone was openly challenging the sitting mob boss for control of the city. “Yeah. A few of his associates are winding up dead too huh?”

“Yeah. Ain’t so bad to be honest” Harvey shrugs, drawing the ire of the commissioner. 

“What? I’ll investigate their deaths and all. Try and get a suspect, but at the end of the day don’t expect me to get all busted up that Tommy “The Bitch Hitter” Angulo wound up with a knife in his throat, or Frankie “The Shark” Beranti took a bath in Gotham river with concrete shoes”.

She couldn’t fight him on that.

This city was better off without characters like that hanging around. ‘Still, can’t have someone bringing justice into their own hands…..well, not like that’ she quickly corrects herself, remembering the working relationship she had with the Bat Clan.

“Need me at the scene?”

“Nah commish. It’s all wrapped up now anyways. To be honest? Can’t do anything about it now. Don’t have any positive ids on a suspect, and even though we went to check up on that albino bastard, he’s refused to work with us”.

“Typical. Estupido’s life is in danger and he still wont talk to us pigs” she says while shaking her head and mulling over something. “Hey...did Bertinelli have any living relatives?”

Harvey scratches his head, going over it in his mind and trying to remember. She was sure he would. After all, when it came to these things the fat detective had an almost eidetic memory on who was who in Gotham’s underworld. “Well, his wife, cute broad by the name of Maria? She was gunned down before him. Still “unsolved” but we all know who did it and why”.

Renee nods, remembering the days when the Italian mob had an almost open door into the department. Either the evidence had been lost, the witnesses intimidated or the case just dropped. Could be all three as well.

‘Damn Loeb’ she thinks, remembering the now long dead man who had personally terrorized her and led the corruption in the GCPD.

“Yeah, actually he did. His daughter. Far as I know, word on the street was that she fled to Italy”.

“Well lets check out if she happened to stay there” Renee says, standing up and getting a notification on her phone.

She reaches into her pocket to retrieve her phone and opens it. “Ahh, the Mrs again?”

“Har har. She’s my girlfriend Harvey” Renee says, opening up the phone with her pass code to see the woman’s message.

  
_ “I heard of something new” _ she wrote while adding a smiling face and a blushing emoji. That was something that was odd about Tatsu. If you just knew her in life, you’d think she very rarely had an emotion, but over text? She was like a school girl.

_ “Ohh yeah? What?” _

“So?” Harvey asks, not being privy to the conversation going on over text. “Change that. Which would you be though? Would it be Mrs. Tatsu Montoya, or Mrs. Renee Yamashiro or whatever hong kong phooey last name she’s got”.

Renee just rolls her eyes, knowing it was all in good fun. In fact, Tatsu really respected and liked Harvey, which is why she often insisted that he be invited along for drinks or dinner from time to time. She couldn’t, for the life of her, explain why the Bushido bound woman liked the burly, insensitive and undisciplined police officer.

“In Japan, in the times of the Shogun, he would be called a Taidana Senshi” Tatsu had explained. “A lazy warrior who neglects his duties in peace, but becomes the stoutest of men in war. He has a good heart”.

‘I guess that fits Harvey’.

She turns to look up at the man, genuinely unsure of how that would work. “Well, I’d hope it would be Tatsu Montoya. TM fits better than RY” she explains as she gets another notification and message.    
  


She opens it and wonders curiously at the message contained within.

_ “It’s called the one finger challenge”. _

She quickly messages back.

_ “What the hell is that?” _

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Anyways commish, I’m gonna take off too. I’m kinda beat. Tomorrow I’ll start working over my leads. See if I can find anything”.

“Aren’t most rats out at night?” she teases the man who just laughs. “Not when there’s bats about they don’t”.

Another message comes through and Renee looks down at it and is shocked by what she saw. Tatsu was standing in front of a mirror, naked as the day she was born. The difference once that she held up one finger that wound up covering her nipples and womanhood due to the reflection in the mirror. 

Renee was completely floored, shocked that her normally so straitlaced girlfriend would do something so...naughty.

Then again, they had been experimenting.

“Something wrong commish?”

She looks up to realize that Harvey was still there, and she shakes her head in the negative. “No, no Harv. Yeah sure. Take the night off. I know Batman for sure wont be” she says while looking back at the picture.

_ “Do you like it?” _

_ “Yeah..dios mio…” _

_ “Come home?” _

_ “On my way”. _

She gets up and picks the jacket up from off of the back of her chair and rapidly throws it around her shoulder, walking out even faster than Harvey. 

“Hey woah, where’s the fire?

“Sorry Harv, just gotta get home myself” she calls back, rushing out to her car. Technically she could’ve went home hours ago, but only now did she seem to have the correct incentive to head home now. 

‘In the morning? We’ve gotta figure out what’s going on. Before it boils out of control. Gotta talk to Batman’.

**_The Iceberg Lounge_ **

Oswald sat down in his chair at his desk, rubbing his forehead before moving forward and picking up the glass of water and aspiring that Jenny had left out for him. As he swallowed the pill and took a nice long drink he couldn’t help but be thankful for the girl.

‘Such a sweet one she is. Lord knows she doesn’t get it from me or her mother’.

The thought of his late wife puts him in a much more dour mood, not that his spirits had been high to begin with. He looks across the desk at the photo he kept on it. Aside from his computer, it was sparse, with only this framed personal memento to keep him occupied when thoughts of home reached his mind.

He takes it in his fingers and brings it closer, looking at the family portrait.

It was a picture that had been taken when Jenny was only five years old, and they’d been at the beach enjoying the waves and sunshine, rarities in Gotham city. He was pudgy and short, and his wife? Tall and skinny as a rail. Neither were particularly attractive, he knew that. But it had never mattered to him that Margaret Cobblepot, nee Pye was no beauty queen.

“Ohh Magaret. Neither one of us would’ve won any prizes ourselves, but if their was a contest for making the most beautiful baby? We would have won hands down”. 

He gently traces his finger over his wife’s lips and cheek, remembering the biting sarcasm that he now so missed.

_ “Oswald, if you were one inch shorter you’d be a stool”. _

_   
_ _ “Careful rolling over like that! I’m liable to lose an eye”. _

_ “A face only a mother could love...well, and me”. _

He shakes his head and laughs, remembering how she hadn’t changed a single bit since high school. “I wish you were here now my love. I’ve gotten us into such a mess. You were always right about me. I’m such a fool. A stupid, squat little fool”.

“Daddy?”

He looks up in fright at the door before relaxing, realizing that it was his daughter. Concern was painted all over her face, and he hated to see it there. “Yes sweetie? Is everything okay?”

“I’m fine daddy” she says, though he knew she wasn’t. ‘I messed up their date. Dammit. I hope that Jason boy gives her another chance. He really is a nice lad’.

“Are you sure my little chick?” 

“Daddy, don’t call me that”   
  


“Why not? If I am the Penguin and you are my daughter, aren’t you by necessity my little chick?”

“I guess” she says with a smile and a blush. “I was going to head home though, unless you needed me for anything else”.

“Ohh no sweetie, no. Head on home. Have Charles and James escort you. I shall be along shortly. I just need to finish up a few accounts and such here”.

She makes to move into the office. “Are you sure? I can handle them if you want, or maybe even tomorrow?”

He waves her off.

“No, no sweetie. I shall take care of this. You need your beauty sleep...well, not really. Perhaps I should prevent you from sleeping to keep some of the boys from trying to knock down the gates of this club”.

She casts her eyes down and shrugs, obviously still thinking about the disaster that had been her date.

“He’ll see you again Jenny. I promise”.

“I hope so”.

“He’d be a real foolish boy not to. That or...well, perhaps batting for the opposite team?” he asks. The question causes her to laugh aloud as she shakes her head. “Nope. Not Jason. That I know”.

“Hmm…” 

He gets up and waddles over to his daughter in that peculiar gate of his, though he was still a full head shorter than her. “Lean down here so I can give you a kiss goodnight” he orders faux imperiously, and Jenny does exactly that. He pecks her on the cheek and she repeats the action.

“Goodnight daddy. I love you”.

“I love you too sweetie. Now get on home and...be careful. Do not leave the house”.

It was an unspoken rule now that she wasn’t to go anywhere. Not with Black Mask using her as leverage against the much smaller crime lord.

“Okay. I won’t” she says before exiting and descending down the stairs into the now mostly empty club. Oswald exits the room to watch her before sighing and running his hands through the little remaining hair on his rapidly balding head. 

“Margaret...protect our little girl”.

“You have a chance to”.

He swivels rapidly about the room before his eyes land on the window directly opposite him, where a pair of eyes seems to glare out at him. He recoils and steps back in horror, thinking back to the Owl war. ‘Is a Talon coming for my head?’

The figure emerges into the slight illumination of the room, and he breathes an audible sigh of relief when he sees who it is, something that was strange for any criminal to think to do when coming face to face with the Batman.

“It’s you. One of the only blokes left in Gotham who ain’t looking to knock someone else off for a piece of the pie”.

He moves back to his desk, trying to project a state of calmness that he didn’t feel inside. “Can I offer you a drink?”

Batman remains silent, standing only a few feet away.

“I figured not. You seem the teetotaler type”.

“I know who you really are...Penguin”.

The other man winces, his nickname being a bit of an inner circle joke that was known to very few outsiders. Still, if anyone was going to figure it out, it would most likely have been the man who was now speaking to him. “Ahh. Well, it was only a matter of time I suppose. What do you got on me?”

“Illicit gambling, distribution of marijuana and stolen alcohol, racketeering, prostitution rings and embezzlement”.

“Ahh so you got it all then. Very thorough. Gotta respect that in a man”. He pours a shot of whiskey and quickly shoots it back, shaking off the chill with the aid of the fiery drink. “I don’t sell hard drugs you know? Wont touch it. Heroin, meth. Not my thing. Marijuana is going to be legalized soon anyways. Police barely want to touch any cases with it now. Not worth the bust” he explains. “The rackets? I’ll admit it’s a scummy move but the thing about those businesses? Anyone who wants it, comes to me. I don’t force nobody”.

He looks down at his feet and shakes his head. “I’m not going to lie and try and convince you I’m a good man” he says, surprising Bruce at how easily the man dropped his high society accent. “I’m not. But I’m not the worst man in Gotham. No. Anyone who does business with me gets a mostly fair shake. I don’t take the pants off a bloke. I leave him enough to rebuild”.

“You sound like you’re justifying what you do”.

“Maybe I am, but the reasons I do it? I ain’t gotta justify those”. He looks back at the picture. “You probably did a whole background check on me eh? Seems you know everything in this city Mr. Big Bad detective”.

Batman just nods.

“Then you know I didn’t grow up easy and you know my wife didn’t either. The Cobblepots. We used to be something ya know? When we first came to this city from London all those centuries back. We was even friends with the Waynes we was”.

“Then that Patrick Wayne...that shite...he stole it all from us”. He clenches and unclenches his hands. “No. No. It’s all water under the bridge. Sometimes I get angry. Hearing the stories of how my grandad trusted him, but...eh. I can’t blame modern Brucey boy, even if I do hate his guts sometimes. Seems a good enough lad”.

Batman moves upward and picks up the picture off of the man’s desk, content that the so called Penguin meant him no harm. Yet. ‘Rather unorthodox character for a crime lord’.

“It used to be different with the streets too. That Mandragora, he’s a real prick but mostly sticks to his own nice little mansion on the hill nowadays. I just kick up thirty percent to him and he lets me on my merry way. Want some free advice?” he asks

Bruce just turns and nods.

“All that? It’s about to change. The peace I mean”.

“The Black Mask” Batman interjects, shocking the man enough that it registers on his face. “Helena Bertinelli has returned to extract revenge for her father’s murder”.

“And how the bloody hell...whatever. That isn’t important. Look, I don’t care about what happens to me anymore. I don’t. I’m a bad guy. I know it. I get what I deserve if you punch me out, tie me up and throw me to Montoya with a nice stack of evidence beside me like a bloody Christmas parcel. But my daughter...my little girl...she don’t deserve this”.

“Talk. Tell me about the Mask” Batman says, leaving his ultimatum out of it. He didn’t need to physically say it for the other man to pick up on it. 

“What’s there to know? Ole’ Bertie’s little girl is back for revenge. That whole thing with Falcone’s corpse tonight? That was her”.

“Where is she located?”

“At her old man’s mansion, but she moves around alot. And she’s got a lot of guys there. Just man to man? If you don’t got serious backup? I don’t think you should try it. Especially not when you have a chance to get her out in the weapon and get Mandragora too”.

That definitely stoked Bruce’s interest, and he gestures with a subtle nod to the man to continue. 

Something suddenly occurs to the Penguin though, and he knows he has to at least try it. “No. No. You got all the freebies out of me that you could possibly wring. Now, I want to make you a deal. Unless you think you can punch what you need out of me”.

The last sentence was delivered with a wry smile, as though he was sure that the caped crusader would not go with that approach. 

Bruce thinks over the merits of it, though he discards them just as quickly as the thought enters his mind. 

He had a sense of fair play after all.

“What do you want?”

“I just want things to continue as they are” Oswald says before making to further explain. “Look, I’m a bad guy. Already said it. But way I see it? I’m the best bad guy out here. Crime? It ain’t ever going away but it can be curtailed a bit. Not to mention...I hear things. Know things. When something bad happens, I don’t want the men who did it lurking around my streets just as much as you. So, here’s my deal. You let me keep calm and carry on, and I’ll be your helping hand”.

Batman glares at the man, feeling a heavy stone settle in the very pit of his stomach. ‘An alliance with a criminal?’ He wanted to say that he’d never consider such a thing. He wanted to shoot the man right down and handcuff him, but something kept him back.

The picture. 

Oswald senses this and doubles down on casting doubt within the man’s mind. “Isn’t there anyone in the world you’d do anything for to keep them safe? Even if it meant making a deal with the devil?”

Barbara, Jason, Harleen and the others flash into his mind, and he realizes that if the situations were reversed, he didn’t know if he’d be able to act any differently. ‘If he’s right...the Wayne’s helped put him here’ he adds mentally.

“Yes”.

Years ago? His answer would have been an emphatic no, but things were changing, and Gotham? It was on the precipice. He had already made a deal with Luthor to secure Gotham. The last thing he needed to happen while these plans were underway was another mob war. 

He needed to nip this in the bud now, and come up with a better method of controlling crime in the future to ensure stability in Gotham after the walls went up. He had run numerous different strategies through his mind, but they were all hampered by the fact of the Bat clan’s limited numbers, and the fact that they often fought the street. They didn’t live on it, so its whispers often missed their ears.

They wouldn’t miss Oswald’s.

Bruce was at his heart, a realist. He knew that his answer would have to be yes. ‘I’m going to have to sell this to Harleen’. That was a much harder thought to swallow at this moment than making a deal with Cobblepot.

“Do we have an accord?” the man asks, placing his hand which resembled more of a flipper than normal hands.

“Will you help me bring down Bertinelli and Mandragora?”

“Of course Bats. Like I said, I want her gone as much as you do. She’s been threatening my daughter and forcing me to work with her because of it. One, nobody threatens Jenny. Two, I hate everything she stands for”.

Bruce could tell that the man was sincere, and in the end, that’s what convinced him that he had to take the chance. ‘Cobblepot can come in handy. Soon. But we’ll be watching him very closely’.

He reaches out and takes the man’s hand, shaking it very solemnly. Oswald was ecstatic. “Thank you. I know you might not believe it from me, but I honestly thank you”.

“Just keep your daughter safe. I’ll help anyway I can” Batman says, wanting to keep this about what else he was going to get out of it. “Where can I take them both down?”

“Well, Mandragora is using me as a go between, same way she is. After the little stunt with Falcone’s bones? He’s eager to see who this is and if he can cut her a deal. Trust me. He wont be able to. She hates his guts. More than I’ve ever seen anyone hate another human being. He wants to kill her at this meeting, and he her. If I wasn’t one of the good guys now I’d say let ‘em” the Penguin teases, getting a growl in return.

“Easy fella. Was just razzin’ ya. Anyways. The meeting is happening next week. And guess what? Both are asking me to supply the other with guns. The meeting is supposed to be on neutral ground, unarmed, and both sides are bribing me to ensure they’re the ones who break the rule”.

“Hmm…go on”.

Oswald smiles to himself, hoping that he’d think the plan was genius. “Well, since neither of them will risk getting caught beforehand, wanting to ensure that they look the part, I’m the one in full control of it. Mobsters are stupid. They trust greed and that’s it. I’ll give ‘em both guns, but wouldn’t ya know it, I got a whole buncha’ blanks from a movie set shipment I’d...borrowed”.

Bruce glares at him as he goes over the faux paus of him having lifted said blanks off of a movie set. ‘You never liked Hollywood much anyways’ he thinks, trying to see the bright side. ‘And this will come in handy’.

“So, long and short? Both show up ready for a fight, thinking they’re armed when they got nothin’ but pop guns. Then, you and your partners swoop in, do your deed and throw ‘em all in jail! And I take over their rackets….”.

He added this last part in a whisper, a smile on his face. “Just for a little while. I promise. I wanna go legit but...well, Jenny’s college is coming up and I’m not exactly as prosperous as I may lead people to believe. Over time...well, I’d be cutting back as much as possible”.

“I’ll hold you too that”.

Batman turns and moves back towards the still open window, the night having gone in a completely different direction than he had expected. 

“Wait! How do I get in contact with you?” Oswald asks as Bruce steps out onto the ledge. He turns his head over his shoulder and says, “Don’t worry, we’ll get in contact with you”.

He makes to jump off back into the night, though something stops him. Something Harley had once told him. 

_ “Most people that go bad? They’re misunderstood. How can you tell the difference from a psychopath like Joker and a still salvageable egg you may ask puddin’? Well, do they still love someone? If so...give them a hand. Be a friend”. _

“The Waynes” Batman says. “You said that they did something to you. A long time ago”.

“Yeah, my grandfather Theodore. Patrick Wayne got him invested in a steel company he owned and when it went under? Wayne up and bought out all my family’s stock for nothing. Froze us out after that. Never really recovered. Why?” the man asks, flummoxed.

Bruce had to tread carefully as always with any possible links or connections that could be made between Batman and Bruce Wayne. He quickly came up with a way to remedy that in this situation. “I want to see you go legitimate quicker than you seem to be willing to at the moment. Something tells me you crave it too. I’d say that Wayne, from what I’ve seen of him, is different than his grandfather”.

“And how would you bloody well know that?” Cobblepot snaps. “Keeping tabs on every citizen in Gotham?”

Bruce glares at the man and nods. “I knew enough about you didn’t I?” he asks. “I also had Wayne in a secure location for weeks while I treated him after the Owl attack on his life. You learn things. Approach him. See about a business partnership, a legitimate one” he adds warningly. 

Oswald sighs and splays out his hands. “Fine. Blood well might do that. Seeing as my daughter is sweet on his son...I might have to anyway”.

“Good”.

And with that, the Dark Knight is gone, leaving Oswald alone once again. He returns to his desk and pours himself another glass of whiskey, letting it go down his throat with much a much less nervous, more relaxed state of mind. 

He puts the empty shot glass down and shakes his head. “Jenny, I do everything for you sweetie. One day the Cobblepot name will mean something again, and it’ll be because of you. But I swear to God and your mother I’m going to give you all the tools to do it”.

He looks back at the window where Batman had gone through and mentally hopes that this new alliance he’d entered into would be better than the last two he’d been forced into with the two mob bosses now vying for control of the city.

‘Well, I better start gathering up info on all of the street pushers I know. It’ll be good to get that shite out of here’.

“Well...I better get home” he says, seeing no reason now to stay around and work on the ledgers. After all, they could probably wait until tomorrow.

**_Mayoral Mansion_ **

“Harvey this is insane!”

Pamela was pacing back and forth, trying to comprehend the news that had just been given to her. Her husband was trying to calm her down, his focus being on nothing but the baby at that moment.

‘Dammit Luthor!’ he thinks, reaching out to grasp his wife’s hand.

“I didn’t plan this sweetie. I really don’t want this responsibility or power”.

“Then turn it down Harvey! Say no!” she seethes.

This put him on edge as well, and he takes her shoulders in his hands to force them to look into each other’s eyes. “And then who would stand up to do it huh Pamela?” he asks, fighting to control his voice. “Who? Who else is there?”

“If you hadn’t been so damned open about you being against Superman, this wouldn’t have happened!”

“Ohh so is that the lesson you want to teach our children? Don’t stand up for what you believe in?”

She slaps his hands away, and turns around, her own instantly going to her stomach as tears roll down her face. “Don’t you dare use that angle on me you bastard!”

Harvey’s face and anger fall at the hot tears he could hear in his wife’s voice, and slowly he approaches her from behind. His hands go to her waist, and to his surprise she lets them stay there. Harvey leans his chin against her shoulder and sighs.

“I’m sorry. I’m an idiot”.

“Yes. You are”.

He smiles lightly, knowing that her insulting him like that was his way in. “It’s really your fault you know” he explains. “For not being there to tell them I’m an idiot and wouldn’t make a good president”. His hands slowly circle around to her belly where their daughter was, having ceased her kicking as she had gotten too big for free movement in her mama’s belly. It would be any day now.

“Ohh Harvey, no...you’d be an amazing president. It’s just...dammit”.

“Whatever it is you can tell me”.

“Superman...he isn’t a criminal like any of the other’s Bruce has taken down” she explains. “He levels cities with his freaking eyes. Think about that”.

“I am” he explains. “Every day. And that’s why I know we need to fight. I want our daughters to be safe and happy, but I also want them to be free. If we don’t fight him now, when? And if destroying cities, killing people and ruling the world isn’t where we drawn the line, where do we draw it?”

His words were having an effect, and Pamela was slowly giving in as she rubbed his hands which rested over her swollen belly. “I know...dammit. I hate when you turn all George Washington and “times that try men’s soul’s” on me”.

“You love it hippie”.

“....a little”.

She looks down and sighs, wiping away her tears. “I’m sorry I snapped at you. Baby hormones”.

“I know. I’m excited to meet her, not only because of how amazing she’s going to but also because it means we get to start all over again” he says, running his hands up to lightly grope her breasts. She tsks and swats his hand away. “You perv”.

“Only for you”.

That made her blush. 

“We’ll be taking some time off before working on our third little girl” she says resolutely, though she wasn’t so sure of that herself. Part of her desperately loved having children, and she idly wondered if it was because of her biology or the fact that she just loved being a mother. “Sure, doesn’t mean we can’t get some practice in”.

“Harvey, I’m fat and my boobs have swollen up to twice their normal size. I feel like a butterball turkey”.

“Well, you’re the sexiest butterball I’ve ever seen” he says, kissing her neck in just the right place before moving to her clavicle. “Hmm”. She reaches back over her shoulder to caress the man with a smile as she closes her eyes.

“Does this mean I’ll be making love to the most powerful man in the world?”

“Well...politically speaking? Yeah”.

“Sooo...like George Washington?”

“Maybe a little bit” he teases, nuzzling her cheek with his nose before kissing it. “And I’m the first lady?”

“First Lady Pamela Dent” he says with a smirk. She bites her lip and smiles to herself while allowing Harvey to caress her, returning the touches in equal measure. She couldn’t help but feel a little excitement at that thought. 

‘Introducing President Dent and his wife, First Lady Pamela Dent’.

She liked how that sounded.

Very, very much.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking Christmas off guys. This chapter isn't the best but...I like a bunch of things I did with it.

**_Wayne Manor, Jason’s Bedroom_ **

When he woke up, the full immensity of what he had done the previous night hits him. Well, rather what he and Barbara had done the previous night. Even know she was cuddled up into his chest, her arms gently stroking his own as they wrap around her midsection. 

He kept looking at her, and he felt horrible.

‘What did I do? Ohh God, what did I do? She trusted you! You took advantage of her!’

‘Hey she kissed you first’.

He warred with himself mentally, trying to justify what he’d done and then trying to condemn himself for it in the same thought. ‘Well, one things for certain. You’re not a virgin anymore’.

He couldn’t stop himself from the self congratulations on at least that part of his manly pride. ‘Dammit’.

He was right back to feeling guilty, and Barbara was starting to wake up. “Hmmm...Jason?”

“Yeah?”

“Lay down. It’s too early” she murrs, apparently seeing nothing wrong with any of this. In Barbara’s semi conscious mind she was going the events of the night. The slight pain that started it before ending in utter pleasure. A pleasure she’d never felt before. It seemed to move on past that though, and she found herself sinking in even deeper into his own self loathing. 

“I uhh...I have to pee”.

“Ughh..are you sure?”

He didn’t know why, but he found it undeniably cute that she was trying to keep him that bed. “Yeah, I’m sure” he explains. “Well….alright. But I’m staying here. It’s too cold”.

She scoots forward off of his chest and instantly cuddles into his bed. Jason wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip by him, and he gets off of the bed and swings his legs onto the floor. “Burr..”. He didn’t realize it at the time, but Barbara was on the money with how cold it was.

‘Doesn’t help that you’re naked either’.

He realizes that the only way to fix this was by getting dressed. Still, the three feet to the dresser was more than enough to make him regret not having gotten dressed after last night’s endeavours, but Barbara had been...very clingy.

‘I need to talk to someone about this...I...who? Who the hell would I tell that wouldn’t be sickened?’

As Jason slips into his underwear and a t-shirt he tries to mull over this issue. He knew that Barbara and he had always insisted that they weren’t siblings, the redhead having always thought that best friends was much better anyways as a descriptor. But it was impossible for them to avoid that moniker, especially in the eyes of wider Gotha.

‘We have the same last name!’.

He turns to look back at her gently snoozing form, and he can’t stop his eyes from traveling along her near perfect feminine outline. She was perfect in so many ways. Like she had been sculpted. Wide hips, though not excessively so, led down to muscled and toned legs, and up towards a lithe waist and toned belly. Her breasts, while not the largest, especially not when compared to Jenny Cobblepot, were definitely more than enough to stoke any man’s fire. 

‘Not to mention that ass of hers’.

He tries to shake the dirty thought away, hating that he couldn’t help but now see his best friend, the girl he’d sworn himself to protect, in a sexual, romantic light. 

He knew it was romantic. 

Even now his heart was beating at the sight of her in his bed, some sort of primal neolithic caveman instinct that quickly associated the word “mine” with the beautiful redhead. He tries to shake it away, but he couldn’t.

‘Why shouldn’t she be mine? Nobody else has protected her like I have. She should know I’m good for her. Mine’. He moves over to the bed and pulls the sheets up over her shoulders as they had ridden off a bit when she moved.

“Jason…”.

“Yeah?”

  
“I love you”.

He sighs to himself, closing his eyes before leaning in and kissing her forehead. He’d never lied to her, and he wouldn’t start doing so now.

“I love you too Barb”.

She smiles and quickly opens her eyes to turn and run her hand across his cheek. “You’ll always be my best friend Jason. Mine”.

With that she turns and goes back to sleep, not as ready to face the day as he was, or simply not as discomforted by the night’s events.

He moves to the door rapidly, and makes a beeline for downstairs. ‘Mom. I have to talk to mom. She’ll know what to do’.

**_Wayne Manor Kitchen_ **

Harleen sat down at the kitchen table, idly sipping from her mug of coffee. She felt calm. At peace even. For the first time since her encounter with the scarecrow she didn’t feel the nervous tension on the back of her neck holding her down. She felt...safe, which for being in your own home? That was something to aim for.

“Mrs. Wayne”.

“Yeah Alfred?”

  
Alfred was standing there, Mary and Martha holding one of his hands each. “Your daughters wish to go outside and play. I was coming to tell you that I was taking out to the playground with…”.

“Alfred! Sweetie! Sunblock!’

Elise rushes up behind the three and moves to her knees, instantly working on applying the white protective cream to the squirming little girl’s faces. 

“With Elise” Alfred finishes with a wry smile.

Harleen could only chuckle to herself at the sight, but sadness slightly prickled at her at the fact that she wasn’t quite yet up to that yet. Her legs still shook, and if she moved for too long she’d wind up collapsing on the ground.

“Well...alright, but only if my two little cuties come and give me a kiss”.

That was something both girls were eager to comply with, and they rushed towards their mother, each giving her a peck on the opposite cheek. “We hope you can come play with us soon mommy!” they say in sync before taking their grandfather’s hand and moving him off forcefully out of the house.

“My word, little Misses! I am old...ahhhh”.

Elise remained behind, though she follows them wistfully with her eyes. “Ohh he’s so great with the kids”.

“Yeah, he really is. Alfred’s a good man”.

Elise moves over to Harleen and pats her shoulder, a wide smile on her face. Harleen expected her to try and have another little pity fest for the younger blonde, though what came out was completely different, something they should’ve been prepared for with Elise Quinzel at this point. “He’s also the best lover I’ve ever had”.

Harleen gasps and blushes a bright red. “Mama!”.

“What? He is” Elise continues, her object being to get Harleen out of her injury induced funk. “There’s a certain way that he likes to use my bre…”.

“Uhh uhh. Nope. Nope. Get out of her. Lucky I’m still so shaky or I’d be dumping water on you mama!”.

The woman leans down and kisses her daughter’s forehead, laughing to herself quietly. “Ohh Harleen. So prim and proper out here but I’ve heard the sounds coming out of your room with Bruce at night. And then there was the time I caught you two in the cave”.

Harleen just looks away with a smile on her face and gingerly sips her coffee again.

“You’re just like me except you’re a lot more respectable. Guess that comes with being Mrs. Wayne hmm?”   
  


Harleen would never get tired of hearing that name. “Yeah. I guess it does”.

“Good. Now stop moping. You’re getting better everyday and soon? You’ll be playing ball with these little tykes again. As it is I better get out there. It’s never good to leave Alfred outnumbered like that”.

She kissed Harleen’s cheek and rushes out the door, picking up a bag she’d dropped on her entrance into the kitchen. It was obvious that her doomsday prepper mother had all sorts of combat grade medical gear in there to keep her children safe from anything ranging from a gun shot wound to radiation poisoning. 

In Gotham?

Her mother was one of the few she could truly trust to keep her babies safe.

“Ohh hey sweetie. What’s going on? You look like you had a bad night”.

Jason had walked into the room, and at seeing his mother sitting at the small table set up in the kitchen, he advances over to her, rubbing the back of his head. “Yes and no” he says. “Ohh? Is everything alright puddin’ pop?”

Jason just puts his head in his hands and looks down, shaking his head vigorously.

“No mom. I...I don’t think it is”.

Silence descends over the two and Harleen just nods along. “Well sweetie, the only way to make a problem worse is by not talking about it and not doing anything about it. So...why don’t we talk?”

He looks up at his mother, and her deep blue eyes which served as wells of truthfulness and trust that made him feel even worse as part of him was desperately fighting to keep the facts from her.

He couldn’t though.

Not Harleen.

“Mom...I...I did something last night. Something awful”.

“Ohh” she says slowly, her face surprisingly neutral. “Did you kill someone?”

“No”.

“Steal something?”

“No” he says, growing more and more uncomfortable by the moment. “Well then how bad could it be? Come on Jason. You can tell mama”.

“I’m afraid you’ll hate me”.

“Never”.

He looks up at her and he instinctively knows that that’s the truth. He doesn’t know why, and he can’t explain it, but his fear of losing his adoptive mother’s love evaporates at that moment. Still, the fear of her disappointment? Her anger? That was still there.

The cat was almost out of the bag though. It was much too late to retighten the drawstrings.

“Mom...last night. Barbara...she was very upset” he begins. “She just wasn’t herself. And we got into a little fight and, well, not really a fight. But after she asked me if she could sleep in my room with me”.

“Ahh huh”.

He didn’t like how all emotion had dropped from her face, and even now she continued to stare at him, waiting for the boy to go on.

‘It’s like she already knows…’.

The thought chilled him to the bone as the idea of Harleen already knowing and just waiting to spring a trap was not something he was prepared for. Still getting over the psychological beating she took or not, she was still Batwoman, and that was nothing to shake a stick at.

“When we got there...she kissed me...and I kissed her back, and one thing led to another and...we made love”.

The words were out there, though for all the good it did. 

The air was still loaded with an intensity he couldn’t explain, well, he could, but he didn’t want to. Harleen puts her mug of coffee down and glares at the boy, taking a deep breath and sighing. She shakes her head and looks out the window, turning back to the boy a few times and opening her mouth before looking back.

“Mom...I’m...I’m so sorry, I don’t know how it happened!” he rushes to defend himself. “She was just...distraught! And then she kissed me, and...it all happened so quick…”.

“I only have one question Jason…”

Harleen seemed to be stoic, but Jason could only guess at the inner rage held behind her blank facial expression.

“Yeah…”.

She reaches down for her mug and swirls it side to side, watching the brown liquid move about in the ceramic cup. She looks at her son over the brim of her cup, and suddenly...she smiles. All trace of anger or disappointment fade from her face as she takes a long sip. “When you and Barbara want some...private time...just put a sock on your door please”.

Jason was floored. 

Completely unbalanced by the fact that his mother knew, and if he was reading her expressions right, didn’t care. In fact, she seemed happy.

“You..you knew?”

“Jason..I check in on all of my babies every night” she explains, reaching across the table to grip his hand. “When I saw that my little redheaded firecracker wasn’t in her room, I went and checked the next best place and when I opened the door...well...let’s just say I closed it really quick and left you two to your business”.

“You’re not mad?”   
  


“Sweetie, why would I be mad at my babies falling in love? You’re not brother and sister you know, and we never raised you that way” she explains. “I mean, we might tease you a bit about it from time to time for the funsies, but in the end? We’ve all been rooting for you two to get together”.

Jason looks down at the floor and tries to collect his thoughts.

“Why do I feel guilty?”

“I don’t know” Harleen explains. “Were you romantically and officially attached to this Jenny girl you were with?”

“No”.

“Some other girl?”

“No”.

“Both of you went along with it?”

“Yeah” Jason says.

Harleen shrugs. “Then I don’t see any reason to feel guilty baby. You didn’t do nothing wrong. All it was, was you and Barbara showing each other how you really feel about one another. That’s all”.

“But…”

“But, but, but” Harleen teases him through mimicry. “But nothing sugar. I will tell you one thing as a smart PHD mind doc. Casual sex? It ain’t good for you. Sooo...do you want what happened with Barbara to keep going? Or was it just a one time thing?”

He blushes to himself and nods.

“I...I think I love her”.

Harleen smiles and nods. “Yeah. Kind of knew as much. So, you love a girl, and she loves you, and you did the dirty two backed monster. No big deal. But...like I said? Sock. Door. Thank you”.

Jason nods and tries to keep his thoughts together. As usual talking to his mother had set things in perspective for him. “Ohh and...one more thing”.

Harleen reaches behind her and slides something to the boy from off the window sill. “In the future...use these. I ain’t ready to be a grandmama, no matter how cute the babies you two make would be”.

Jason takes the packet of condoms off of the table as quickly as possible, casting his eyes around in fear at someone seeing. He places them in his pocket and sees his mother wink at him.

“Ohh, ohhh yeah, just one teensy little thing? Hurt my little girl, and you’ll be in big trouble mister”.

At that moment Barbara walks in yawning and moving to the fridge. “Morning mom…..morning Jason”.

She gives a shy little smile, already thinking that their secret was still a secret. “We have any OJ?”

Jason was blushing like a madman at how obtuse Barbara could be, and Harleen was enjoying it as much as she could. “No sweetie. We’re out”. She turns to Jason and gestures for him to help her get up. He rushes to fetch her cane which rested a few feet away and hands it to her while assisting her to her feet.

“Alright, that’s enough help. Just needed the oomph to get up”. 

She brushes Jason off and moves over to the fridge. “Ahh hem. Young lady?”

Barbara turns and looks up at her mother, a question already in her eyes and on her lips. She stops though, feeling that something was off. “You taking the pill you’re supposed to be every day?”   
  


“Mom!”

“I asked you a question…”.

“What’s this about?” 

“It’s about me ensuring that there are no little feet pitter pattering around here yet” she says. “Your sisters are to young to be aunts”.

“Mom I’m not even…”.

“Uhh huh”. 

She looks over to Jason for support while the boy just shakes his head and winces. “You told her?”

“No, your moans of pleasure from the hallway told me Barbara Wayne” Harleen corrects. “Now, are you taking your pills every day?”

Barbara looks down meekly and nods, the fridge door still in her hand which she was happy to be holding onto as it served as a sort of tether to the Earth which was shaking beneath her feet. “Ahh looking like the cat that ate the canary now how my little munchkin?”

“Mom I’m sorry…”.

“Don’t apologize” Harleen says. “Already had this conversation with your boyfriend. You aren’t brother and sister, you never were. You’re still both my babies. Don’t ask how that works mentally because it don’t”.

“Now...the pills”.

“Yeah jeez I’m taking them!” Barbara shouts out exasperatedly. 

“Good. And don’t act like that. You’ll be thanking me when you get to make as much love with Jason as you want without worrying about a baby bump preventing you from getting down” Harleen teases before blushing herself and realizing that she and her own mother were a lot more alike than she had previously thought.

Harleen reaches out and places her hands over her daughter’s shoulders and smiles. “I love you. Both of you. I wont lie and say I never saw this coming and didn’t prepare for it. But you…” she turns and looks at Barbara with a glare. “Hurt my little boy? I’ll hurt you. Capische?”

Barbara nods, unable to do anything but acquiesce to her mother’s demands. 

“Good. Now, I’m going into the bat cave. Your father needs me to go over all that stuff you pulled offa’ Cobblepot’s computer. So...you two...behave”.

With that the blonde leaves the room, and Barbara moves towards the table to sit down next to Jason. “So...she knows”.

“Which means that Bruce knows”.

“And that means Uncle Vic and the rest will soon too”.

“Yup” Jason says a little dejectedly before looking up at her and smiling. “I guess we have to take the teasing in good spirits. Or a “stiff upper lip” as Alfred would say” the young man teases the girl. She shoves his hand off of her shoulder and gets up. 

“Hey, I was only teasing!”

She stops at doorway and turns her head over her shoulder. “I don’t like being teased. Especially not by my whole family”. She makes to keep going but stops one last time. “I’m going to take a shower. Leave a sock on the second floor bathroom door”.

She leaves right after that, leaving Jason dumbfounded. ‘Was she listening in, or did she just have the same thought as mom?’

The thought of Barbara’s naked and sudsed up body comes to him, and in his imagination she has a come hither smile that just begs for him to come up and help her. 

He looks around and tries to fight the temptation...for exactly fifteen seconds.

“Barbara! Wait!”

**_Arkham Asylum_ **

The door opened and Jonathan felt himself scurry to the back of the room, his arms bound behind his back by the strait jacket he wore. “No! No! Stop! Stop! Please!”

He was dreading seeing her again. The blonde woman.

She had filled all his nightmares, fueled his worst fever dreams. Her scream, the way she would punch him. The way she looked at him! Like he was nothing! Nothing more than a piece of garbage beneath her boots.

When he first saw her in his aborted assault on the asylum, seeing her had brought him back to his youth and all the horror it entailed. 

_ “Crane the creeper! Hanging around the girl’s bathroom!” _

_ “Crane the creeper! Crane the creeper! Crane the creeper!” _

The image switches to his home life, and the blonde cheerleader fades into his memory to be replaced by his father raising a belt.

_ “Embarrassing me like that! Do you realize we have a name that’s worth something!”. _

The belt had been brought down upon him like a whip, and it certainly left marks. Over the years, the marks had grown and grown until there wasn’t a single piece of his body that hadn’t been marked in some horrid way or another.

It all came back to him at the sight of the vigilante called Black Canary. 

‘She! She caused all this!’ he screams and curses in his mind before he begins to trash around.

“Woah, easy there slugger. Gonna blow yourself a gasket. Hehe”.

“Please. Gotta have something better than that”.

“Well I don’t Jester my boy. Maybe you should come up with something too. It doesn’t always have to be me running the gags”.

Jester...and that voice? Those two things sounded familiar. Especially the voice. Crane looks up from his position on the floor and sees the face of the clown that he’d broken out of maximum security. 

“You”.

  
Joker moves onto his knees and smiles, taking off the guard’s hat he wore atop his hand. Behind him stood a younger man wearing another guard’s uniform, apparently taking up watch at the door.

“What do you want?” Crane asks.

“To return the favor. You see, you did a nice thing breaking me out of this dump which has...horrid security if you ask me” he says before chuckling. “I mean, if I’m here? I guess they’ll let any ole’ riff raff in. But you? Ohh Craney boy. You’ve got moxey. I saw what you did to Doctor Quinzel. I wonder what kind of things she saw in there. Would you be able to tell me?”

Jonathan was certainly interested, and he moves to his knees to be eye level with the clown. “I can’t. Each person’s fears are individual. Like a fingerprint”.

Joker’s smile turns into a frown and he sighs while wiping off his knees.

“That’s too bad. I was hoping she would have some naughty dreams about me”.

“Pops. The Dee Dee’s are coming down the hall” Jester says from behind him.

“Ahh, excellent. Right on schedule. You took down the security cameras didn’t you?”

Dick lets out a sinister smile and nods. “Yup. That was the most fun about this whole thing so far”.

“Ohh trust me Dickie, it’s gonna really...hehehe, blow up from here on out”. Joker turns back to Crane and retracts a knife from one of his pockets before grasping the man by the neck and turning him around. 

For a moment the man was concerned that the clown was going to kill him, but he’s pleasantly surprised when instead he finds his hands freed. He was still in the strait jacket, but now? He had a whole range of movement back.

He turns to glare at Joker, seeing him replace the knife in his back pocket. 

“What’s your plan here? Why do you need me?”

“Ohhhh a smart one. Well, it’s not that I personally need you. It’s you that needs me. And I..need you? Well it’s all very complicated but my point is, I like what you did to Arkham”. Joker turns to Dick and gestures for him to hand something over. 

“Ohh right, right, right”.

Dick reaches into his back pocket and pulls out the mask and tosses it to Joker, who catches it in one hand before inspecting it.

“Ohh yeah, this is the source of your power isn’t it?”

Slowly the white skinned man brings his hand forward, and Crane’s eyes are drawn right to the object in his grasp.

His mask.

It sat there in his palm, calling out to Jonathan in a way he never even thought was possible. “Go on. Take it. Become that big mean scary thing I saw again. I think Gotham city is eager to meet him”.

Crane reaches out and takes it while his mind reverberates with that one word. ‘Gotham. Gotham. Gotham. The city of fear’.

He pulls it open and into the air while working on pulling it over his face. Soon, his vision was black, but it returned to him quickly enough, and he felt...strong again. Slowly he stands and looks around, the world in a whole new light as he peers out through the two holes in the burlap sack.

“My, my, my. Aren’t we ready for trick or treating”.

“We’ve got him Mr. Joker! We’ve got him!”

Two women enter the room, both dressed in much skimpier versions of the guard’s uniforms. The buttons were undone halfway down their chests, and they weren’t wearing a bra. The pants were worn lower too, exposing the drawn up strings of their thong panties. 

The women were just like the men in the fact that they were white skinned, with green hair, and the same mad gleam in their eye. “Well howdy Dee, whatcha got there?” Dick asks, slapping the one nearest to him on the rear end, ending with an appreciative grope.

She melds into his chest for a moment, leaving the future containment of their hostage who was squirming to escape his bondage and the gag about his mouth, to her compatriot. “A nice little surprise for my Dickie!” she teases, letting the young man grasp her chin between his thumb and pointer.

“Pfft...as if he could shine a candle to my Mr. Joker” the other teases with a wink in the older man’s direction. Joker smiles back, but in his mind he could care less for the gas created sycophant. She was a stand in and nothing more. 

‘No. Harleen will always be my real prize! Always’ he soothes himself, imagining how Harleen herself would look, sculpted in his own image.

“Bring our little substitute for Mr. Crane in here doll” he urges, letting Dick take his time with his Dee Dee, while his own pushes the man forward.    
  
“Pfft, as if you’d want to trade in a new model for the old”.

“Bitch”.

“Cunt. Bet you got dust in your cooch now that you let that old fart in there!”

“Girls, girls, let’s not argue, especially not in front of our brand new friend here!” Joker says, making the process smoother by giving “his” Dee Dee a matching swat on the rear.

“Ohh” she giggles out cutely before throwing the man she held in her arms to the floor. “Dee, mind getting the gasoline?” Dick asks while kissing the other woman’s cheek. “Anything for you Mr. D!”.

She rushes from the room, more than eager to please her lover whom already had her complete loyalty. When she returns, she is carrying a jerry can. She promptly gets to work and undoes the top, beginning to pour it over the man who squeals out as the flammable liquid covers him.

“What are you doing?” Scarecrow asks, grasping the Joker’s arm. It wasn’t lost on the Joker that the man’s voice was different now, in fact his whole demeanor. He puts his nose up and purses his lips, trying to affect a look of high distinction.

“Why Mr. Crane, even one such as you with, I would say in my professional opinion as a professional psychopath, multiple personality disorder, obsessive compulsive tendencies mixed in with a panic disorder of a very serious caliber annnnnd...an intense panic disorder that manifests itself through your obsession with phobias...where was I going with this? Ohh yeah”.

Joker pats the man’s chest and pulls him out of the room, urging the other three to follow him. “We’re staging your death buddy! After all, what are friends for?”

One of the Dee Dees steps out of the room and lights a match, laughing to herself before chucking it into the room.

The man’s screams increase in intensity, and the flames are almost instantly licking at the padded cell, even into the hallway. 

“We gotta go Crane. We’ve got some people to introduce you too. And we’ve got a truck. A really big one! We’re going to get us all out of here”.

“And when we get where you want us?” Crane asks, moving along with the clown themed group for the moment. 

“Well...let’s think. How about a...second Halloween in Gotham?” he says, just as more and more flames lick out to engulf more of the aging and decrepit wing.

The Asylum’s alarm system had only just kicked on, alerting all staff to the fact that something was wrong. By that time?   
  


Nobody was questioning the group of three guards escorting a wounded prisoner outside. 

Even if they did look a little pale.

**_LexCorp Construction Zone 3_ **

“This had better be good if you’re going to drag me one hundred feet below the surface Jeremiah” Lex says to the foreman who was working on leading his bald boss through the quickly dug tunnel.

“It is sir, It is”.

  
“Aside from that, how far along are we in laying down the blast shields? And the lead casings?” he asks, brushing some dirt that had fallen off of the ceiling onto his shoulder. He was underneath the new Lexcorp headquarters, a small and rather unimposing building, but for now it would do.

Aside from that, his major operation was happening underground for the time being, and the full extent of such an operation became visible as they exited one of the walkway tunnels and broke out into a huge cavern.

Hundreds of feet below them was a massive array of tools, material and workers, all busily setting down steel plates encased in lead and a very thing layer of synthetic kryptonite. It was one of his latest inventions, though he refused to take all the credit. 

Mercy had come up with it one night while they were...cuddling.

‘Me. Lex Luthor. Cuddling’.

_ “Lex baby? I had an idea” she said while laying her head on his chest. “Yes Mercy?”. She sits up a bit to look into his eyes. “Well, what if Superman is able to get at the city from beneath us?” _

_ He just chuckles.  _

_ “I already thought of that sweetie. He can’t risk going as deep as I plan to go, or he’ll wind up going through the Earth’s core in an attempt to get to Gotham. I don’t think anyone, even him, would be crazy enough to try that”. _

_ “But what if one of the other heroes does? And you really want to do this basically all under Gotham?” _

_ “As much as I can without destabilizing the city” he responds while rubbing over her lip and thigh. ‘Dammit...this woman distracts me’. _

_ “Why not encase it in the fake kryptonite?” she queries. “We have tons of it. More than we can really use at the moment. And we can make more. It would prevent him from getting through in case someone like Martian Manhunter shielded him”. _

_ He had sat upright in the bed and frowned to himself, shocked that the Martian’s abilities hadn’t gotten into his mind. “Did...did I say something stupid?” _

_ He just smiled down at her and shook his head, smothering her face in kisses. “No! No! Mercy you’re a genius!” _

He shakes the dopey smile off of his face, refusing to let any of his employees see the effect that the burnett was having on him in his personal life.

Still, it had been a genius idea. 

More than genius.

Superman was the one they had to be most concerned with keeping out of the city and with Mercy’s quick thinking, yet another avenue to be used to keep him out. ‘Still...gotta figure a way to keep that damn Martian out too’ he thinks to himself as they enter another tunnel.

“We found it when we were digging out another passageway for a dome. We’re doing the tunnels so we don’t hollow everything out completely”.

“I understand how it’s being done Jeremiah. I’m the one who told you to do it” Lex explains patiently. Jeremiah turns his head and nods. “Sorry my Luthor. It’s easy to forget how hands on you are”.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lex asks, partially insulted. 

“Nothin’ sir. Nothin’”.

The man was beginning to pant, through Lex could see where they were going, or at least what was the source of all the interest.

“Are those...bricks? No...stones”.

“Yes sir…” Jeremiah says, pointing out the entrance that they’d made through the stones into the dark cavern. “And what the hell...is this a cairn?” he asks, stepping into it and being well pleased at the fact that the digging crew had already set up a system of lights inside. He was shocked, utterly shocked by what he saw.

As he looked around his eyes landed on all sorts of different items that would make an archeologist go insane with desire.

“It looks like a burial mound” Lex says to himself before turning and seeing the large stone slabbed coffin in the middle of the chamber. Atop it was a artistic rendition of a knight, though...the knight seemed different. 

He places the lamp atop it and begins to read what’s carved into the stone while his other workers, having been appraised of the man’s presence, join in. “It’s old Norse” he explains, shocked at that mere fact. “Not Miagani. They weren’t capable of this kind of craftsmanship”.

“Norse...ain’t that uh..Vikings?”

“Very astute whoever that was, but that’s not all. There’s also old English”.

“Can you read it?”

“I can...but I need you to be silent for a moment”.

The group heeds the demand of their boss and zip their lips as he begins to decipher what there is. His eyes widen as he gets to the end and he stands up straight. “Gentleman, get back to work but know this...you’ve made one of the greatest archeological finds in centuries. Also...call Mr. Wayne”.

“Why?”   
  


Lex turns and smirks. 

“He has a bit of family history here for him to discover”. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I really want to know what you think of the ending to this chapter. It's going to be kind of an undercurrent in the story, less important as a piece of the plot and more as something for universe building. A secret history of Gotham if you will.If you guys dont like it I'd leave all mention to it in this chapter.

**_Bertinelli Compound_ **

She sat in her father’s old chair and just stared at the picture that hung over the fireplace. She didn’t exactly remember where her father had gotten it, or even why. All she knew as a child was that it was frightening.

The painting was done to represent Lucifer falling from the heavens above, and all around him he is ringed by his fellow angels who cheer on his demise. Helena remembers her father speaking about the painting at length, and how he perceived the other angels to be hiding their true intentions.

_ “You see Helena” he had said while moving onto his knees to be at eye level with his daughter. “The other angels? They wanted the same thing that he did, but they weren’t brave enough to try it on their own, and they were to selfish to aid Lucifer in his own attempt because then? Well, then they’d have to bow down to a different God than the one they already hated”. _

She didn’t understand it then, and her mother usually chastised her father for telling the little girl “blasphemies”.

“Ohh mother. If only you’d realized then how much blasphemy is actually true”.

The phone begins to ring and Helena makes a show to herself of reaching languidly for it, apparently seeing the act of rushing on someone else’s behalf as beneath her dignity.

She picks the phone up off of the receiver and places it against her ear.

“Cobblepot?”

She goes silent for a minute before nodding, the voice on the other end of the line speaking. 

  
“And we have an agreement?”

“Good. I’ll see you then”.

She hangs up the phone without any further acknowledgement, not seeing the stout little man as anything more than a freak who was meant to do her bidding without asking any questions. Soon, she’d have Mandragora in her net, and she wouldn’t have any more need of the Penguin and his daughter.

In fact, they’d soon become a liability.

Her attention turns off of her future business and instead moves back to the painting on the way. She stands and pushes the chair back into the desk.

The office was cold and lonely, as her entire life seemed to be from the moment she left Gotham to when she came back. The fires of revenge burning deep within her chest could only sustain her for so long, and now, with vengeance so close at hand?   
  


She was afraid of what would happen when they were fully snuffed out.

The mantle and the liquor contained atop it provides a comforting distraction, and she quickly makes to take advantage of it. A glass, some ice and a slight pour of whiskey were all it took to put her mind at ease.

“I will not fall from the heavens papa” she says to herself, downing her glass and placing the empty cup back on the mantle. “No. I was never from above to begin with. Gotham is hell. I don’t want to rule it. Not like you did”.

She moves to the window and thinks about Mandragora. How he gunned down her mother and then her father. How he was able to live happily for all of these years. 

“I just want to kill the one who does”.

**_Lexcorp Dig Site 3_ **

“And you’re telling me that baldie found something relating to your family?”

“Yes”.

Harleen moves along behind her husband, her hand interlocked through his as they keep going through the tunnels. The worker had fetched them and was leading them, but so far he remained mumb on the subject of what it was that Lex had found.

Harleen stumbles over a rock, and she almost falls fully forward. She closes her eyes, ready for one hell of a face plant into the soil, but finds her downward descent halted. Bruce had caught her about the waist, and was now holding her close to him, stereotypically as if he had just swooped her down to kiss her.

“You alright?”

She didn’t know how he could pull it off at almost every turn, but he looked so suave.

“Yeah. I’m fine as long as I have my puddin’ with me”.

He brings her back up to her feet, though his hand remains on her back to steady her. “Harleen, are you sure you’re okay? You don’t need to be here if you’re not feeling up to it”.

“Bruce, I’m fine. I need to get back into the swing of things” she says, kissing his cheek. “But I find it cute when you fuss all over me”.

The man smiles and turns back to the patiently waiting guard. “Sorry, we’re just, heh, I guess we’re just used to this kind of exertion”.

Harleen raised her eyebrow at that and smirked, knowing that Bruce was still playing a part for those outside of the family to fall for. ‘We exert ourselves ten times more than this every night Brucey boy’.

“No problem Mr. Wayne. We can take it a little slow if your wife need…”.

“I’m fine” Harleen interjects. “I’m fine. Let’s keep going Bruce. Wouldn’t want to keep Mr. Luthor waiting”.

That was something else that Harleen had to swallow and swallow quickly. ‘Partnering with Lex Luthor to save Gotham, defeat Superman and basically create a whole new country with Harvey as the president? Really treading into strange waters’.

She had agreed with Bruce on this issue and on the issue of his alliance with Cobblepot. She didn’t exactly “like” it, but when she found out about everything that was going on in Gotham? She knew that she had no choice. 

THEY had no choice.

‘Better someone like Cobblepot than Mandragora or Bertinelli anyways’.

She wants to turn her thoughts away from plots and wars and all the other nasty stuff, and instead wants to talk to her husband about something much cheerier and more important in her mind. And as they move along this tunnel to an uncertain destination? It was the best time.

“So...I’ve got a bit of news to share with you myself puddin’”.

“Ohh yeah?”

“Uhhmm. Barbara and Jason have gotten….closer”.

That stops him, and he turns down to look at his wife with a curious glance. He was going to ask what she meant before it settled on him, and his eyes widen in shock. “Ohh”.

“Yeah. Ohh” she giggles cutely, squeezing his hand. “I had a talk with them about being safe and making sure their mama doesn’t walk in on them when they want some private time”.

“I...I’m not sure how I feel about this”.

“Aww come on puddin. You knew this day would come eventually. They’re perfect for one another and we all know it” she pleads.

“It’s not that” he defends himself, already having a feeling that he was going to be made a fool of by his wife. “It’s...well, Barbara. Not really sure how comfortable I am knowing she’s being...intimate with someone”.

Harleen chuckles at her husband, and shakes her head. “Sweetie, she’s old enough to make those decisions...safely” she reiterates. “Of which I have been ensuring that such things will be done safely”.

“The pill?”

“And condoms for Jason”.

“You went out and bought condoms?” he asks.

“Duh, yeah. I’m not embarrassed by that kind of stuff Bruce. Also...I noticed that it was Barbara you were concerned about making love now. Not Jason. Any reason for that?”

She reaches to his chest to rub it gently. 

“Well...it’s different for boys I guess”.

“Is it?”

“Yes”.

Harleen frowns for a second, not liking how Bruce had seemed to dig in his heels on that point of view. “It’s one of the few things we’ve gotten the long end of the stick on”.

“Ohh really?”

“Yup”.

The two slowly smile at one another and Harleen shakes her head. “Never change Bruce. Keep being my big, old fashioned brute”.

“I think that’s easily done”.

His expression turns serious again and he nods to himself, apparently having come to a conclusion of what he had to do himself. “I’m going to have a talk with Jason. Man to man. I want him to know that sex...it isn’t just sex. It’s…”.

“Shhh...already told him that sweetie. He knows. Our Jason? He’s a good boy and Barbara? Well, deep down? She’s still a good girl. This’ll be good for her I think”.

“And is that your professional medical opinion?” he teases her.

“Yes it is, though I also have tons of experience studying someone who was a lot like her” she says knowingly. “And who would that be?” 

Their conversation is interrupted by the humming of motors and other machinery which seems to just buzz along without any real rhyme or reason and as they stop at the end of the tunnel, they see how they would get to the lower layer that was apparently the source of so much interest for Luthor, and apparently Bruce.

The three enter a small elevator that had been constructed atop the dig site, and from there they could see how expansive Luthor’s operation had become. Harleen drops the subject for a moment to marvel at the feat of engineering that was happening before her very eyes. “Wow...he’s really going all out huh?”

“Ohh yeah. Mr. Luthor doesn’t do anything half assed” the worker says, reminding the two of his presence. 

Harleen curls herself into Bruce, unable to stop the fear that seemed to wedge itself in her heart at the fact of what was going on in the world around them. She didn’t want to tell anyone, but the thought of coming face to face with Superman? Or Wonder Woman?

It terrified her.

Bruce leans down and kisses her forehead. 

“Who is like Barbara?” he asks as the gears begin to crank on the machinery that brings the car slowly moving downwards to the lower levels.

“Huh?”

“Who does Barbara remind you of? You said you had experience in dealing with someone like her”.

Harleen smiles and looks up at the man, remaining close to his chest. “You. She’s a lot like her father”.

The man didn’t seem to understand what she was driving at until it hits him and he nods. “Yeah. I guess you’re right. So, you’re thinking Jason can pull her out of it, the way you pulled me?”

“I’m thinking he can at least be there for her in ways that we can’t, and yet she still needs” she explains, trying to outline why she believed Jason and Barbara would fit together outside of her own desires to see the two as a couple.

“Yeah”.

She notices his sullen attitude and works out what was bothering him quickly enough. “Just because she’s a woman now, that doesn’t mean she stops being that little girl we took in you know?” she asks the man, wanting to ensure that he knew that. 

“As for Jason, well, at least she’s not dating some random scumbag we don’t know. She’s dating a good boy. The best!”.

Slowly Bruce smiles, putting those worries at least out of his head. “Yeah. That’s true”.

**_Kane Memorial Catholic School_ **

Things were going well in Jason Wayne’s world. Or at least, as well as he could hope. He had a girlfriend now, something that was in and of itself quite confusing, especially considering WHO said girlfriend was.

His grades were excellent, he was a star baseball player and secretly? He had one of the most thrilling and rewarding night lives anyone could ever wish for. As Robin he was helping protect this city alongside the rest of his family. What more could a young man want?

Nothing.

That was the answer. Nothing.

He had everything he could want and yet he still felt as if there was something waiting around the corner. Some other piece of greatness, not for himself necessarily, but more of...a true purpose. A calling. 

“Hi Jason”.

He was broken from his revelries by the intruding voice, and it puts a pit right in his stomach at who it was. ‘Dammit…’. He slowly turns and smiles as best as he could, closing his locker while coming face to face with Jenny Cobblepot. 

She looked nervous, though he really couldn’t place why. “Ohh, hey Jenny. How are you doing today?”

“I’m good. A little worried about that math test in fourth period. But other than that? I’m fine”.

“Yeah, me too” Jason chuckles to himself while rubbing the back of his head. “Math really isn’t my strong suit”.

Jenny shrugs. “I’m good at it. But...not when you add all sorts of letters and stuff to it. I like my english and math separate thank you very much”.

Both share a nervous chuckle with one another, and it was clear that they were both trying to avoid the conversation that both really wanted to have out of embarrassment. Jenny was the first one who was brave enough to break the deadlock.

“Jason...about the other night. I know that all must have seemed insane to you. Maybe even a little...sketchy? I just wanted to apologize for that. I don’t want you to think badly of me and I really want to make it up to you”.

She reaches out and takes his hand to squeeze, blushing as she looks down. “You see...I really like you. I have for a while, I guess I was just too nervous and scared to say anything” she explains, making Jason feel even worse. ‘If this had happened a month ago? I would’ve jumped at the opportunity’ he thinks, reflecting on how his fortunes had so rapidly changed.

“I was wondering if you’d like to go out to dinner and a movie. Something a little more traditional. I love the lounge but maybe it was a bad idea for us to go there. It might’ve given you the wrong impression of my father and I”.

‘Ohh Jenny...I don’t have an impression. I have the truth’. He hated that on all technical counts she was a criminal, either by act or by proxy. He couldn’t move past that. 

“Jenny...I...ummm..”.

He sees how her eyes fall, especially as he takes his hand away from her. “I just want to be openly honest about everything that’s going on” he explains, adding a mental caveat of ‘as honest as I can be’. This whole situation was uncomfortable for him, and it showed.

“That’s usually the right way to go” she says in response, trying to keep her voice neutral. 

“I’ve...well, I’m with someone now. It kind of happened...very quickly and I know that sounds awful but…”.

“Hey Jason!”

Someone else joins the fray, though it was clear that she was much more upbeat than he or Jenny was at that moment. Barbara inserts herself without even thinking twice at this point, so elated was she at finally having what she felt was hers by right that she seemed to not even take notice of the world around her. 

“Barbara…” Jason says, put a little off balance as the redhead wraps her arms around his shoulders and kisses him openly, drawing the attention of numerous other students. “Oooooohhhhh” some of them call out, causing the very popular athlete to blush wildly. Barbara didn’t care at all, only caring for the feeling of Jason’s lips upon her own, and his hands on her waist. 

“Ms. Wayne!” a scandalized nun who happened to be passing by calls out. “Cease and desist your public display of vulgarity immediately or I shall have you brought before the dean!”

Barbara rolls her eyes but slowly complies, making a show of faux shame as she puts her head down and folds her hands behind her back. “I’m sorry Sister Heather. It won’t happen again”. Unbeknownst to anyone watching, she crossed her fingers behind her back, while Jason just blushes and looks away.

  
The nun turns her eyes on the boy and sadly shakes her head. “I know she is not your sister Mr. Wayne, but I would’ve hoped you would see how...scandalous this could appear”.

“Well...I don’t see it as scandalous” Jason defends himself, and by extension Barbara, causing the redhead to smile. Jason had never so much as uttered a peep back against an authority figure. “But...I apologize for...our public display of vulgarity” he says, definitely meaning that part.

The last way he’d wanted his relationship with Barbara to be exposed was through a public kiss. 

“Hmm...well...be careful Mr. Wayne. And you” she turns back to Barbara. “Watch yourself”.

With that the nun walks away and Barbara blows a kiss at her back before looking at Jason with a wide smile. He didn’t know why, but suddenly? Her enthusiasm was infectious and her behavior more….charming than it used to be.

Barbara turns to look at Jenny Cobblepot, a desire in her to humiliate her one time foe mixing with an innate sympathy for the shattered look in her eyes. “Ohh..hello Jenny”.

Jenny reaches up to wipe a tear away, trying to hide the fact of its existence, though both of the adopted Waynes saw it, they make no comment in order to spare Jenny some humiliation. “Hi Barbara. I...I didn’t know you two were...well…”.

“It...it just happened” Jason interjects.

Barbara looks at him over her shoulder and turns back to Jenny, for once feeling in a much more conciliatory mood towards an opponent she’d defeated. ‘Damn...why don’t I just want to gloat and rub her face in it?’

“I’ve felt this way about Jason for a long time Jenny” she explains. “And a few nights back, it kind of just bubbled out between us”.

Jenny holds up a hand, trying to stall any possible further conversation about what Barbara and Jason had gotten up to. “It’s fine. Hey, Jason and I only went out on one date” she says, laughing to cover her brimming tears. “And that got interrupted so it’s not as if I have any real claim over him. No need to apologize”.

  
Barbara smiles happily, taking the girl’s words at face value. Jason however, felt that his heart was breaking for Jenny. 

“But anyways, regardless, Jason...I’d still like to be your friend. If...if you thought that would be okay, and if Barbara wouldn’t mind it”.

“Of course he’ll be your friend” Barbara says, placing an arm around the other girl’s shoulder. Everyone was shocked, Barbara the most. She couldn’t explain it though. She felt like she was walking on sunshine, and when her mood now was compared against her mood of the past few days nobody could help but notice a marked improvement.

“I’d like it if I could be your friend too Jenny. I mean, having a rich buddy? That’s always the best”.

Jenny found herself confused by that statement.

“But...Barbara...you’re richer than me…” she almost stutters out, not sure of what to make of everything. “So that means we can’t be friends?”

“No, no, I was just saying…”.

The bell rings just then, ending any prolonged further conversation. “How about this. Sometime next week, we’ll all go out and do something. How’s that sound J?”

Jason was flabbergasted at the open enthusiasm and happiness emanating off of Barbara, but he didn’t want to embarrass her by calling her out on it now. No. It would have to wait. 

“It sounds good Barbara” the boy says, finally making to speak for himself. “Jenny...I’d love to be your friend” he adds to the other girl, finding that he fully meant at least that sentiment. Jenny smiles and nods, gripping her book bag close to her chest before she turns to walk away. “I’ll...I’ll see you two later”.

She walks down the hallway, leaving Barbara and Jason alone pack their own bags up that would be needed for their next class, which was oddly the one they took together. “What’s going on with you?” 

“What?”

“Don’t play innocent with me. You’ve NEVER been nice to Jenny, let alone offered to be her friend” he whispers, trying to keep his voice down as they talk. Barbara just shrugs, nonplussed by the whole issue apparently. “Maybe I just want a friend aside from you dweeb”.

“Pfft…”

She senses that Jason doesn’t believe her, nor did she expect him too. 

“Look...I’m just...I’m feeling really good this morning. I don’t know why. I can’t really explain. But I just do. Maybe you screwed a smile permanently onto my face or something”.

Jason blushes even harder and sighs, trying to cover up the fact that she was getting to him. Barbara though, she picked up on everything when there was something of interest to her. She elbows him in the side and moves in closer.

“I won’t tell Father Blood about you fucking me in every corner of your room if you tell me how I was”.

“What?” Jason asks scandalized.

“You heard me” she teases as they continue to walk forward. “Tell me how I was in the bed or...I might just feel a sense of Christian shame”.

“As if”.

She begins to fake the act of sniffling as she folds her hands in front of her. “Could you..imagine, me going to Father Blood and confessing to my horrible sins?”

Jason sighs, knowing that this was just yet another game he was going to have to get used to playing along with. “I’d...be in tears Jason! In tears as I told him about how you used your tongue…”.

“You were an angel”.

Barbara stops at hearing those words and blushes, tilting her head to look at her still thoroughly embarrassed boyfriend. Jason sighs and continues on with his true thoughts. “That was my first time...and yours as well, because...well”. He kept looking around the hallway, content that they were alone. “But, it was amazing. Awkward and amazing...and I love you”.

Barbara leans in and pecks his cheek, making sure to follow school protocol while in the halls of this sacred institution. “I love you too Jason”.

She was even happier now.

Out of the few things she wanted more than anything on this Earth, Jason’s love was one of the very high up ones. In fact, there was only one thing she wanted more, and that? Well, that was going to present an opportunity soon enough.

**_Ace Chemicals_ **

He moves the barrel to the side of the room with the others, gently prying off the covering cap with a screwdriver he’d procured from somewhere within the abandoned confines of the building. It was laughably easy to find what he needed, and especially in such large quantities.

Jonathan Crane was busily at work, inserting a tube that would feed just the right amount of liquid at just the right time to create a perfect version of his fear toxin.

‘Yes! Yes! It’s all coming together! All of it! What luck!’

He still wore his mask, though he’d somewhat altered the rest of his clothing. His straitjacket remained in place, though the tears, tatters and dirt only added to the overall fear his get up inspired. The sickly sharpe sickles that hung from two makeshift holsters on either one of his hips certainly helped it along.

Scarecrow was changed, and he knew it.

“It all goes back to the clown!” he hisses gutturally to himself as he primes the pump to begin feeding the Joker toxin into his barrels. The green viscous liquid swirled about evilly in the suspended glass dome above him, secured only through manual labor and held up by the strength of rusted chains.

“It really is a genius idea to add your fear toxin to my own little witch’s brew”.

The Joker walked in, flanked by a figure he had been introduced too but had rapidly lost interest in when he was first brought to the factory. 

Joker continues on, seemingly nonplussed. “It’ll be a real hoot I’m telling you. Fear and laughter, all mixed together! In fact, it’ll be a real...heh...you know, I don’t need to come up with a pun for everything. It’s not my responsibility!” he says loudly before turning and grasping the older man by the robe and pulling him forward to glare. 

“Why don’t you do something fun huh? Or does your god put a moratorium on fun?”   
  


Blackfire pushes the Joker away and makes a show of brushing himself off, as if the mere touch of the man was enough to disgust him. Crane was uninterested in all of their shenanigans and acted as if they weren’t there. He focused instead on his toxin, and dreamed of getting even with Dinah.

He tries to shake her laughter out of his mind, but he can’t, and the voices? They just keep coming back. 

_ “Creeper Crane! Creeper Crane! Creeper Crane!” _

_ “Your mother hated you. You know that right? I wish you’d died that day instead of her” _

“Shut up...shut up”.

Blackfire looks towards the man’s back, watching as he eagerly tooled with a beaker. “Your new...friend...he doesn’t look well”.

Joker found that humorous, more humorous than he should have.

“Seeing as you’re a sewer rat preacher and I’m a clown? I don’t think either of us have room to talk. Hehe”. With that he leaves Blackfire and begins to advance on the other man. “Heya Scarecrow buddy ole’ pal. How’s it all cooking so far?”

Crane stops and slowly turns his head to look up at the self styled Clown Prince of Crime through the eyeholes of his mask. When he realizes that the pale skinned man still didn’t fear him, he turns back to work, though he has the good sense to answer him.

“It’s going fine. Give me two days of peace and quiet and it’ll be done. Which means I don’t want to deal with this makeshift Moses’ preachings”.

Blackfire was angered by that, and he quickly advances on the two criminals. “I am not a fraud! I am God’s voice upon Earth! His eternal prophet! His…”.

Crane drops the now empty beaker, allowing it to shatter on the hard ground as it stops the man’s rant. With a speed nobody expected of the man, let alone a strength, he picked up Blackfire by his neck and began to choke him.

“Do you feel that...fear...fear is the only thing that all humans truly have in common” he begins, ignoring the man’s struggle for breath. Joker was smiling, practically giddy at the show that was happening right before his eyes.

“Understand this. I wish to subject you to the strength of fear as well, the one true religion. The one truth that has stayed with us since the days of rustlings outside of the cave...but, for now, you are useful to me”.

Just like that he drops the man to ground, causing the older man to moan from the added pain of the fall to his undoubtedly bruised neck. Crane turns back to his device and offers only a few more words to the Joker.

“Keep him away from me while I work”.

“No problem buddy. It will be done” the Joker says with a salute before yanking Blackfire up and pulling him from the room. “My advice? Listen to him. He’s definitely not going to be buying whatever it is you’re selling. Ohhh! I have an idea how to get him on your good side, just like me and Jester! Give him some grade a poon…”.

“No..” Blackfire shouts, pushing the man away now that they were out of earshot of the fear obsessed madman. “No..”. His voice was much quieter now, and he feels the guilt and weight of the sacrifice he’d been forced to make.

Two women, now lost to his flock. Given over to the demons who were assisting them for them to sate their pleasures on. Misformed, changed...broken.

He couldn’t even stand to look into their family’s eyes.

“Aww well, you sure you don’t have a but more tail to spare? I mean, look at the Dee Dees! They certainly don’t mind their makeover. They’re a lot happier now that they’re getting the ole’ pork sausage on a daily basis” Joker teases, mimicking the act of fornication in order to further pick at the man in front of him.

“No. Out of the question. I have committed a grave enough sin by handing the two I did to you” Blackfire moans out as he begins to descend the stairs. 

“Wellllll...you had no choice. Dick really needed the release. Ohh, how about you help yourself by helping Crane? That redhead wife of yours has got to be bothering you by now right? I bet if you slipped her into Crane’s bed, a little Jezebel like her would get him to listen to your preachings”.

Blackfire gripped his staff tightly, barely resisting the urge to strike the man down. Only the knowledge of what would happen to him if he did keeps him from acting. 

Joker was pleased though. He was going to keep picking at this scab until it bled over and then? He’d have a lot more than an army in someone else’s hands to occasionally use. 

No. He’d have his own. 

A laughing gaggle of friends, lovers and other assorted madmen. 

‘With me and Harleen...oops...Batwoman, or...is it both? One or none? Two? Hehehee’.

“Do not speak of the holy mother in such a way” Blackfire says, his tone taking on an honest pleading dimension. 

“Ohh alright. I suppose you might love your old lady a bit or maybe...eh, I don’t know. Don’t care. Just busting chops old boy!”.

“Mister J!!!” 

His face falls and he rolls his eyes. “Gee, stick your baby maker in her once and she’s already acting like she’s got a ring on your finger” he whispers through the side of his mouth to the Deacon before looking up at the overhanging catwalk where one of the Dee Dees was standing.

“Yes dear?”

“We’re hungry. Jester is going out for food. What do you want sweetie?”

He scrunches up his face and thinks it over, giving Blackfire enough time to return to the relative safety of his flock on the lower floor. As he moved down the rickety stairs, his only question was to himself, and it repeated over and over. ‘Why Lord? Why do you send demons to my aid in place of angels?’

**_Cobblepot Manor_ **

“And we’re agreed?” Mandragora asks on the other end of the line.

“We are”.

“Good then. I’m glad to see that the Cobblepot’s are still smart. At least what’s left of them. Let’s keep it that way”.

Abruptly the mob boss hangs up, and Oswald sets down the phone fuming. “Another cocksucker wants to threaten my daughter. Well, trust me. Batman is gonna make a right mess of alla’ yer’ fookin’ plans” he says to himself. Quickly he calms down, trying to reign in his anger.

_ “You swear like a cockney whore when you’re angry Ozzie” _

“I know love. I know. I’m sorry”.

It helped to imagine what his wife would say when he was close to losing it. Still, he had hope now. Batman. What a strange place for hope to come from for a man like him.

He hears the front door open and slam down the hall, and the rush of foot steps right after that. “Sweetie? Jenny dear, are you home?”

He doesn’t get a response, at least not one of words as all he hears is crying. Instantly he’s out of his chair and on his feet, moving with a speed he’d never thought himself capable of at any other time’s except for when his daughter needed him.

He rushes down the hall, calling out her name and getting only her sobs in return. 

“Jenny! Jenny! Dear, are you okay? Jenny!”.

He finally makes it to her room and the sight that greets him is just as heartbreaking as he thought it would be. Jenny was laying, face down on her bed, and bawling her eyes out, her bag thrown to the side of the room.

“Sweetheart...what…”.

  
“Get out!”

She had never snapped at him before, and it hurt him to see her do it now. She looks away from him and moves back onto her bed, tucking her knees up under her chin and then wrapping her arms about herself. 

He slowly moves into the room, not being good at these kinds of things.

“Jenny...what’s wrong?”

Jenny keeps crying, but slowly she looks up and puts her arms out, eagerly wrapping them around the man who hugs her back. “Daddy...I’m sorry for snapping at you…”.

He rubs her back and coos into her ear. “Shhh...it’s okay love. It’s okay. Just tell me what’s wrong”

“Jason...he’s...he’s dating someone else”.

Oswald’s heart fell at that, and anger swelled up within him at the boy. ‘What’s wrong with him? Can’t he see how amazing she is? How could he just go off with some other tramp?’

“Who?”

“Barbara Wayne”.

“His sister?!!” Oswald asks, utterly scandalized as his eyebrows hit the top of his hairline. Jenny couldn’t help but chuckle at that, though the tears were still present. “No daddy...well, I guess legally maybe but...no. They’ve never really looked at themselves that way”.

“Still…”.

“Trust me” she sniffles. “It’s not like that. I...I was too slow. I always liked him. And over time...well, I...I see how amazing he is and I just...I lost. I was too late. And then the other night with Bertinelli…”.

He hugs her close and sighs, hating that his world had come to interfere in Jenny’s so much. When she’d first started working for him, he’d only wanted her to make a bit of money. Learn how to be independent and such. 

He didn’t want...this.

“Well...what did he say?”

Jenny just smiles and shakes her head, laughing lightly before tearing up again. “He was so sweet to me even then….he didn’t want to hurt my feelings. I can tell” she says before collecting herself. “But..he and Barbara...they both want to be my friends”.

That was...a surprising silver lining.

“Well sweetie...I think, well, you’ve always had a problem making friends. So….this might be a good thing believe it or not”.

“You think so?”

He strokes the side of her head and kisses her forehead. “I know so. Sometimes, a friend is a lot better to have than a significant other. And who knows? Relationships fail all the time. If you really care about this boy, it’ll show and eventually? He’ll see. If he and his sis...girlfriend” he says, shaking his head to try and correct the orientation of the two’s relationship in his mind. “Do break up? You’ll be there. Unless you meet someone else you like along the way”.

The thought settles in Jenny’s mind, and for some reason, it’s a comforting one. “Did you...did you have to wait for mom?”

“For years sweetie. Years” he chuckles. “But she was my special one. And I would’ve waited forever for her. If he’s your one, don’t give up. But if not? A friend is worth having too”.

She goes in for another hug and Oswald just holds his now much calmer daughter, happy that at the very least, things were going to get better. ‘As soon as Mandragora and Bertinelli are gone sweetie...I’m going to buy you a pony...or...well, whatever you want. Something nice’.

**_Burial Chamber_ **

Bruce was in awe of what was in front of him, and so was Harleen.

“Wow...puddin’...this...why did Luthor want you to come? I mean, it’s amazing but...what does this have to do with you?”

“Everything Mrs. Wayne” the bald man himself says as he enters through the same hole that had been cut into the side of the burial chamber, holding the hand of a shapely woman in a driver’s cap and uniform. 

“The skirt doesn’t really fit down here”.

All eyes turn to Harleen, and the woman who her comment had been addressed to smiles. Harleen herself was embarrassed and slaps a hand over her mouth. “I am so sorry. I...I didn’t mean to say that out loud”.

“No, no. It’s fine. Honest people are hard to come by Mrs. Wayne”.

Lex steps forward towards the casket and stands next to the couple. “Mr. and Mrs. Wayne, this is Mercy Graves my driv…”.

“Girlfriend” Mercy corrects.

“Ohh right, yes sorry love I...I’m not good with...this”.

“It’s okay Lex. I’m here to remind you. Now, help Mr. and Mrs. Wayne here understand why they were brought hundreds off feet below Gotham” she teases before pecking his cheek.

“Ohh I like her” Harleen whispers to Bruce who was still looking around the room, utterly in shock at what he was seeing. 

“Mr. Wayne seems to already have an idea” he says, moving towards the base of the sarcophagus and brushing his hand over the lower portion. “I didn’t realize you read Norse Mr. Wayne. Where did you pick up that skill?”

Bruce doesn't respond, his eyes still fixed on the runes that dot the stone. The intricate work done to carve out the likeness of whoever was buried there alone was fascinating, but the words….the words held much greater meaning to him.

“Puddin...what’s wrong?” Harley asks, concern lacing every syllable of her sentence.

“This can’t be true…”.

“It is. Unless you know of anyone else with your name who has such a pedigree. Also, the family crest on there?” Lex says, gesturing to the side of the stone slab to reveal the crossed swords over a celtic cross. “That’s an archaic form of your family crest. It evolved over time, but my top researchers say that it belongs to your family. Also...look at the face”.

All eyes are drawn to the stone face atop the sarcophagus’ cover. It was now well lit through the usage of electric work site lamps and it only takes a minute for Harley to recognize it. She looks back and forth between it and Bruce, not knowing what to say.

“Bruce...he...he looks like you”.

“Aside from the long hair?” he says, turning to his wife. “Yes”.

“We believe we’ve found the remains of one of your ancestors Bruce” Lex says, stepping forward and gesturing for Mercy to give him something. The woman reaches into the knapsack that hung at her side and retracts an ancient looking book, before handing it over to Lex who proceeds to hand it to Bruce.

“What is this?”

“A journal apparently. We found it amongst the grave goods. Your ancestor was quite a writer as well”. Bruce opens the book and sees Norse runes now mixed amongst archaic english. “Apparently, the Waynes were here a long time before the first colony was set up. This is your ancestor Bruce. From what we can gather he came here on a voyage from England. His name was Jarl Leorblak Wainson”.

“Wain. The root is English. For cart. The word that the modern Wayne is descended from”.

“Ahh a linguist as well” Lex says, genuinely impressed. “Did you know what his first name means? It’s kind of funny considering that this is Gotham and all” Lex teases cluelessly. Bruce already knew, though he plays dumb. “What?”

Lex’s face falls. “Leorblak. Bat” he explains before chuckling. “Imagine that? Your ancestor, one of the first Europeans to reach this land, was named Bat Wayne”.

Bruce chuckles but looks away, back at the journal as he tries to decipher this absolutely mind blowing situation. It was also an attempt to move the conversation away from Bruce Wayne and bats at the same time.

“Apparently, from the grave goods we’ve found, your great, great...well, I don’t have time for all the greats, but Leoblak was here to try and forge a kingdom of his own. But...I’ll let you figure this all out for yourself Bruce” he says, patting the man on the shoulder and making to exit.

“Wait! Wait!” Bruce calls out, getting the other millionaire to stop. “Why..why hand this off to me?”

Lex shrugs. “Because it has no bearing on my job here though I’m working to preserve it and make sure no damage is done. You can get your own team down here though if you want. I really don’t have time. We have a Superman to keep at bay”.

“None of this makes sense” Bruce says. “My family came from England when they came over in 1635. This...this is almost a thousand years before then”.

“I don’t know Bruce. This is all for you to find out like I said. This isn’t a Luthor family history” he says, feigning disinterest as he moves off. Mercy stays behind for a moment, turning to the couple. “He likes you two. Otherwise? He wouldn’t have bothered”.

With that? She turns and joins her boyfriend in his return to overseeing the construction underneath the city, leaving the two Wayne’s alone. Bruce continues to flip through the journal, trying to make out the utterly faded letters held within.

“It’s amazing this has been preserved so well”.

Harleen was focused on a stone slab to the right upon which writing was spattered about in tepid strokes. “Bruce...what is this? It doesn’t look the same as the other squiggly writing”.

Bruce closes the book and moves over, knowing that he would have much to discover from the faded, animal skin bound journal. “What?”

“Over here..it’s...it’s something else” she says.

He squints at the wall and sees what Harleen was talking about, and the letters jump out at him much more clearly. “It’s gaelic”.

“Can you ready it puddin’”.

“Yes..one second” he says before slowly enunciating each word. “I call to the spirits of the four winds, to carry us forth, spirits interwoven, never to part. I call out to thee, Lugh, knower of thine own vengeance, heed the prayers of one of your sisters and a daughter of Ogygia” he says before stopping to turn to Harleen. “Ancient Ireland” he explains.

She nods and gestures for him to go on, feeling a strange sense of eagerness. This whole chamber...it gave her deja vu in a way she never expected to feel.

Bruce complies with her desires and continues his translation.

“Smite those who brought shame down upon my husband, whom they swore fealty too. Bring us vengeance, a taste which we long for. Until then, our spirits shall remain together...I swear this to thee, I, Harleigha of Dubloch, wife of Leorblak. I shall rest forever with my love”.

Both looked at one another and tried to make sense of what they’d just read, when a look comes over Harleen’s eyes, as if she’d just thought of something. She rushes back to the sarcophagus and begins to try and push it open. “Puddin’, get over here and help me!” she shouts out, and Bruce asks no questions as he moves to his wife’s side. Together, they gently push the top of the container off, keeping it from smashing to the floor as best as they could, not wanting it to break.

It kicks up a lot of dust, a lot more than they had been expecting. They fight to clear it away with their hands, and they cough as it worms its way into their mouths. Still Harley was insistent, and as soon as it’s cleared, they peak over the side into the confines of the ancient grave.

What they see shocks them.

One skeleton was laying on it’s back, a sword which seemed to not have suffered a single bit of rust grasped within its hand. However, to its side, an arm pressed over its chest as if cuddling into it, was another.

The grave held two bodies.


	10. Chapter 10

**_Vinland, 873 A.D, Modern Day Gotham_ **

The cold lapped angrily at the walls of the longhouse, and Harleigha shivered despite herself. ‘Should be used to the cold by now’ she thinks, reminding herself that this was her first winter here in this new land. ‘Very different from Ireland’.

The wooden door opens, and a large man walks in beside three others. “Close the door! By Bres! Close the door”.

The lead man eagerly complies, himself shivering off some of the snow that had settled atop his shoulders and cloak. “Which fool is it that went out in this weather?” she asks, moving towards the group of men. “And for what purpose?”

The lead man lowers the hood that covered his head and a hearty laugh fills the inside of the Jarl’s home. “A pity. Odin must weep tears on the day a man’s wife does not recognize him”.

Harleigha’s eyes go wide and she rushes at the man, caring not for the cold while throwing her own cloak away. Her arms wrapped around the man were the only thing she desire at that moment. “Leorblak!”.

He hugs her tightly back and nuzzles into her neck, kissing her skin softly. She chuckles at how his beard feels against her bare skin, though she loves it all the same. She falls back a bit to face him, though she doesn’t let her arms move from him as she reproached him. “I should have known. It’s not just any fool that would lead his men into Cailleach’s embrace willingly. Should I be worried? Is there another woman whom calls out to you in the snow?”

Leorblak reaches down and caresses her cheek, calming her anger and providing a soothing balm to her jealousy. “No my little Irish flower. Not even Freyja herself could convince me to revoke my heart from you”.

She leans into his chest and nestles her head under his chin, rocking her body back and forth. “Ohh you are so cold”. She takes his hand between hers and rubs it, all the while she gently blows warm air upon it. Slowly he warms, though she doesn’t release his hand. Blue eyes stare into one another, connected in a way that nobody within their clan could truly understand.

Harleigha tears her eyes away for a moment and studies the other men. “And which fools joined their Jarl in his madness?”.

“I as always Harleigha”.

Another man lowers his own hood, and she instantly recognizes him by the streak of white which lines his otherwise dark head of hair. The man gives her a light smile and bows in deference. None of this shocked Harleiga. “Ohh Jason of Norwich. Your white Christ can’t protect you in this new world you are aware correct?” she chides good naturedly.

“On the contrary Harleigha. My God follows me everywhere. In time, you shall come to accept him as well” the man says, handling his own warming up precautions. Leorblak smiles and laughs heartily at his friends words. “Ohh Jason. You croon on about this God of yours incessantly”.

“He is worth worshipping my Jarl”.

“Ohh? Then how is it you find yourself the housecarl of a filthy pagan and his beautiful and wild wife such as I?” he asks, leaning down to kiss said wife’s head as she cradles herself into his side. Jason just smiled and works on removing his coat, though he was having quite the time of it due to the ice which still seemed to course through his veins.

“Ohh Jason, let me help”.

Harleigha rushes forward and assists the man in casting off his armor and outer soaked robes. “Thank you Harleigha”.

Leorblak just smiles and crosses his arms over his chest before noticing an abandoned horn of mead behind him upon the table he was leaned against. Harleigha is quick to notice and smiles. “That’s mine mousse” she teases, using her nickname for him. “Ahh...then it shall taste even sweeter for the touch of thine lips”.

Without reservation he reaches out and takes a sip from the horn, making a show of savoring it as deeply as possible. Harleigha smiles and laughs at the antics of her usually forlorn husband. “When you get married, find yourself a woman who shall humor your antics Sir Jason”.

Jason nods and shrugs. “I highly doubt that I would find such a woman who would rest easily with my attendant quirks” he says, his eyes holding the secret meaning to his words as the demon within him cries out. “I think thee are over dramatic. A woman could easily love one so handsome and kind as you, especially when you’re so brave as to follow this fool on all his adventures” she teases, moving back to Leorblak. 

He accepts her back into his chest with open arms and he rubs her gently. “Ahh but who is the greater fool? He who binds himself by strength of arms to a strong, yet foolhardy man, or the woman who decides to share her life with such a madman?”

Harleigha seemed to be thinking it over and quickly comes to the conclusion that she was indeed the less one of the two. “I must apologize love. It appears my dear husband is able to fight as well with his tongue as he is with his sword”.

“Well, what a wonderfully naughty insinuation”.

The new voice came from the second of Leorblak’s comrades, and as he lowers his hood, his sickeningly wide smile is the first thing to come to sight. Harleigha shivers at the sight of his pale skin, only a few degrees away from being like the snow that covers the landscape like a blanket. 

“Sigurd Loki Born, I did not see you” Harleigha says.

“Well now you have Harleigha, now you have. Would you mind helping me as you have helped this braying, yet sullen Christ worshipper”.

He spat vindictively at Jason, who took it silently. Harleigha, all for having a good laugh with her friend about his unorthodox religious beliefs, was not in favor of mean spirited mockery. She rushes forward and glares into Sigurd’s deep and dark eyes that hid all of the deceitfulness that would give him his moniker.

“Jason is free to worship his creator as he sees fit. He is a thousand times more welcome in Odin’s Hall or at the hearth of Aengus Og than a vile wretch such as you would be”.

Sigurd was enraged by the shapely blonde’s words and it shows. He makes ready to move forward, his hand in such a position as if he was going to strike her. He doesn’t even get the chance as Jason and Bruce have moved up before the woman, their hands on the grips of their swords. 

“You aren’t thinking off striking my wife...are you Sigurd?”

Leorblak’s voice was filled with rage, and his eyes blazed with an intensity that Harleigha only saw when he was in the midst of battle...or, well, a particularly intense bout of lovemaking.

Sigurd draws back, though his hatred was far from quenched, and he glares balefully at Leorblak, though a smile comes to his face. With a bow, he intends to win back a trust he knows he never truly had in the first place. “A thousand pardons my jarl. The trek, it was long and hard. You know how I am without my mead. Harleigha, I hold you in the highest possible esteem, and my anger stemmed from that. I apologize to you, and would seek your pardon”.

“You are a snake Sigurd Loki Born. You do not have my pardon. To Dubnos, Helheim AND Hell with you and your honeyed words”.

With that she turns and rushes to the room set off on the side of the longhouse, stopping only at Jason to deliver a quick peck to his cheek that makes the man blush. “You however, have my friendship and that of my husband Sir Jason of Norwich. Whether you worship my gods, my husbands or your own. Who knows. Perhaps you are right and you will wear down my husband into being baptized one day”.

  
She casts a smile at Leorblak who was still working at keeping Sigurd in check before slipping into their room, obviously angered. It did not help that even in anger and rage, Sigurd’s eyes ran over her body, appreciating its form and lusting after it for himself.

Leorblak did not let this fact escape his notice, and he turns to the man who was supposed to have been honor born to him, but who had done little but dishonor him in their time together. “You are released from your bond Sigurd Loki Born. Not from fulfilling it, but from proof that you shall never amount to anything other than a mockery, like your father for whom you’re named”.

Sigurd’s eyes open in fear and in anger, knowing what this would mean. 

“You mean to banish me lord? In this frozen wasteland? Alone to perish for the crime of speaking crossly to a woman out of her place?”

Leorblak was unmoved, especially as Sigurd continues to insult the woman he loved. “Harleigha’s place is where Harleigha wishes it to be. While I wish I was as cruel as you, I am still called Leorblak the Just. You are to be granted one horse, and you shall ride to our outpost on Norn’s Rock Island to await the spring longship”.

“That is the island of the natives! They will surely slaughter me. My Jarl, if you’d only grant me one…”.

“Enough” Leoblak cuts him off. “I’ve given you enough chances. I shall not give another. If you fear the natives then you are a coward. If not, then go and await out longship. Tell them that their Jarl orders you to be returned to Norway. From there you can do what you wish. If you do not survive, at least meet your honorable end with your axe in hand if you wish to go to Valhalla”.

Leorblak says nothing more and turns to advance into the room he shared with his wife, leaving Sigurd to glare at his back. “This is not over Leorblak the unjust!” he says, perverting his title. “I shall revenge mysel…”.

“Come on. Out with you. We are all sick of your braying” Jason says, carrying out his Jarl’s orders and working on shoving the man back into the cold and wanting to ready a horse for him as quickly as possible.

Sigurd would not be easily led however, and his rage was an all consuming fire sent by Surtr. “I shall burn everything you hold dear to the ground Leorblak! And I’ll make you suffer! I swear it!” he then descends into a fit of laughter, something he was wont to do at random and inopportune times, and Jason had to shiver off the cold he felt at the harsh embrace of that sound over his spine.

In the Jarl’s quarters, Harleigha had sat down on a wooden bench to work at pushing a whale bone brush through her long blonde tresses, wanting to work out her anger as she readied herself for bed. She feels his hands upon her shoulders, and she quickly yields the comb to his fingers.

“Do not heed the words of a fool”.

He begins to run it through her hair for her and she finds herself more than comforted by his touch. “It is a wise man who….ohh….hmmm that feels nice Leorblak”.

“I knew it would”.

“Have you sent him away?”

“I have. Never to return”.

“Good” she says, not caring if the man perished in the snow. “He is evil. The way he treats prisoners. What he did to that priest in Dubloch” she shivers, remembering the sight of the blood eagle being done on the hapless man. Only the support of King Harald had stopped Leorblak from interfering.

“He hates what he does not understand. And those who follow this White Christ, their Nailed God, he does not understand them”.

“You sound as if you do?” she teases lightly.

Leorblak shrugs and massages her shoulders lightly, enjoying how her flesh felt through her red and black dress. He never quite understood why she sewed it in that particular pattern, but he loved how she looked in it regardless. “Jason tells me many things of his faith. It is strong in his god and I find myself...lacking in fighting his ideas”.

She turns her head back to look up at him, and her eyes close while she reaches up with her hand to stroke his cheek. “Kiss me”.

He was all too eager to oblige such a request and he leans down to capture her lips between his own. When they separate they remain close, and Leorblack reaches down to cradle his wife as he carries her to the bed. She yields to him, as always, and allows him to carry her onto the bed. 

They fall, with Harleigha comfortably nestled beneath the man. They continue to look into each other’s eyes, caressing the flesh of the one they loved. “Tell me what you thought of me when you first saw me again?”

Leorblak nuzzles his nose against hers and begins the tale again.

“When we raided Dubloch, I only expected gold. I never expected to find such a beautiful woman, let alone a goddess in flesh”.

Harleigha blushes at this, fighting the urge to stop him from making such a statement while also reveling in how such words felt against her heart. “I also didn’t expect her to pick up axe and fight me so bitterly. I was entranced by the way you moved Harleigha, and fighting you...it was like dancing”.

“Until you knocked me off of my feet and pinned me against that table” she giggles.

“Until then, yes. What made you kiss me?”

“Hmm...I don’t know. Maybe that fire in your eyes. That urge to claim me. I didn’t realize it but...I wanted to be conquered by you” she says, leaning up to nibble on his ear lobe. “Just as I want my husband to conquer me now”.

Leorblak smiles wide and pulls the furs over the two of them as they hastily begin to undress. “A siege well worth mounting”.

“Haha”.

Miles away now, Sigurd was riding towards Norn’s Rock Island, only a shallow causeway separating the two pieces of land at this time of night. His mind was wrought with jealousy, desire, hatred and rage. ‘I will have my revenge upon you Leorblak. All that is yours shall be mine! By Loki I’ll take it all, and bed your woman upon your wooden throne! She’ll mew like a whore for me!’

Outwardly, all that could be heard was his laughter, warring with the winter winds.

**_The Batcave, Present Day_ **

Bruce closes the diary and reaches up to rub the bridge of his nose and eyes, trying to make sense of this live changing revelation.

“You okay puddin’?”

Harley had moved down into the cave, her footsteps echoing off of the stone walls as she carried a tray with a mug of coffee and some toast on it. “I know you like dipping toast in coffee so I brought you some”.

He rushes up to take the tray from her, abandoning the old and tattered journal on the table. She deftly avoids him, and places the tray on the table as well before leaning back against it and glaring at him. “Bruce...stop treating me like an invalid. Okay? I’m fine. A lot better now”.

“We’re never gonna stop worrying about you Harley” Dinah says, advancing down the stairs, already changed into her uniform. 

“Why is that blondie?”

“Because you’re you” she teases out. “Nobody takes more unnecessary risks than Harleen Wayne...well, except for Bruce Wayne maybe. Anyways, are you coming out with us tonight?”

Bruce looks at Harley and tries to gauge what she had to say before speaking. “Yeah. I am”.

“Harley are you sure…”.

Without even flinching Harleen sighs and reaches behind her, grasping three batarangs in her hand. With only a second or two of looking, she tosses them out across the room and sends the small sharp objects flying through the air. Just as Bruce and Dinah turn their eyes to where they went, all three make their mark, and bury themselves in the wooden targets that they used to hone their skills.

“Bullseye” she says while moving over to the changing area.

“I’m coming with you Bruce”.

The man was left astonished at his wife’s display of skill, and he knew that there was no way he was going to convince her that she wasn’t ready to get back into the field when she was practically recovered.

“She’s incredibly stubborn isn’t she”.

Bruce just nods to himself and then smiles at Dinah. “Most of you are”.

“I heard that” Harleen calls out, slipping into her suit with practiced ease. When she’s done she exits from behind the divider and moves out into the cave with her cowl in her hand. “Get in there and get changed puddin’ and while we wait for Babs and Jason to get down here, you can tell me what’s with the book”.

The man acquiesces with a sigh, and makes to get dressed as well.

“What’s with this book?”

Harleen turns to Dinah just as she’s putting on the cowl, and tries to fill the blonde in a bit more than they’d been able to before. “Apparently, Bruce’s family has been here a very long time. A lot longer than anyone would’ve thought”.

“Ahh so that’s what Luthor found?”

“Yup, some sort of tomb I’d say”.

“And they found this cool looking sword inside?”

The two blonde women turn to look back at the computer where the sword was leaned up against it. Barbara was standing there, inspecting the weapon and moving it between her hands as if to feel the heft. “Doesn’t look like it was underground all that long?”

“It wasn’t”.

Bruce had returned, fully dressed in his batsuit, just as everyone else was now. “Alright, I’m never going to get over how all of you move like freakin’ ghosts” Dinah says. “How the hell did you sneak in her so quick? And did you get dressed up in the manor?”

Barbara was already wearing her Robin suit, though she was much more focused on the sword than the conversation or questions being posed to her. “Yeah. Jason did too. He’ll be down in a minute”.

“Ahh...having some last minute prep...owww”.

Dinah looks over at Harley who’d hit her lightly upside the head. The woman gestures towards Bruce whose discomfort was given away by the tight line his mouth had formed. Barbara just blushes and pretends to swing the sword. 

“Don’t taunt the poor man” Harleen whispers.

Dinah makes a zipping motion across her mouth, nonverbally agreeing to not tease Barbara, Jason, and by extension Bruce, about the physical relationship between Barbara and Jason. Bruce hadn’t said anything, but it was clear he wanted too.

“The sword is even older than the bodies. I’ve used carbon dating to ascertain the age of it and it comes from the sixth century, a full three hundred years before Leorblak and Harleigha were...entombed”.

Harley didn’t like the way he said “entombed”, and she knows she has to ask about it. “What do you mean puddin’?”

“I mean that both died of unnatural causes. A wound to the chest for Leorblak and a self inflicted knife wound to Harleigha’s throat”.

“Ohh god...she killed herself?”

“Right in the sarcophagus” Bruce says. “A knife was found clutches within her hand. DNA analysis showed long dried blood on it, blood that matches with Harleigha’s remains”.

“Damn” Dinah says. 

Harley was quickly piecing it together though, and it seemed to click in her mind. “So...maybe Leorblak was killed, tombed up and….Harleigha joined him of her own free will?”

“It’s not uncommon in viking funerary rights to have a slave, or rather a thrall join the deceased on their journey” Jason says, moving into the cave alongside Vic. 

“But this isn’t a thrall, this was the guy’s wife. I thought viking women were more free or something” Dinah exclaims. “A lot of that information is falsified or exaggerated” Vic supplies. “So far we have only found one grave containing both a female skeleton and war goods at the same time. However, some evidence suggests the linkage of another corpse that had been washed away by erosion which was male. If the two are linked, it’s possible that the sole piece of evidence we have for female warriors is really just a wife being buried with her husband. This was all in Otsfold, Norway for anyone who is interested”.

“Party pooper” Dinah says, crossing her arms over her ample chest and pouting. “Wanted to believe in shieldmaidens and stuff”.

Vic walks up behind her, wearing his trademark mask, and begins to rub her shoulders. “You can be my valkyrie any time you want Dinah”.

Barbara had lost interest in the sword as she knew that there was no way Bruce would let her carry it into their upcoming fight. ‘Eh, don’t like swords much anyways’ she says, not noticing how Jason seemed to be entranced by it. He moves closer towards it, drawn in by a glow and...a voice which seems to come from far off.

_ “Holy knight, take up your sword for God!” _

“Hey umm…” he says, trying to ignore the sound and sight and grab everyone’s attention. “If this was found in your pagan ancestor’s grave...why does it have a templar cross on the hilt?”

“I don’t know”.

Jason turns towards Bruce, another question on his lips. “What did the journal say?”

Barbara saddles up beside him almost subconsciously though it was noticed by everyone else in the room. Bruce appraises the two and decides to address the issue he wanted off of his chest before speaking about his discovery within the book’s pages. 

“I have heard that you two have decided to become...intimate”.

Even the couching of the truth in his gentle unobtrusive term was enough to make the two blush and look away. Barbara was the boldest of the two though, and she quickly regains enough courage to reach out and take Jason’s hand within her own. “We are”.

There was a certain challenge in her eyes that Bruce wasn’t surprised to see. ‘Everything is like pulling teeth with her’. 

“I just wanted to say that I agree with your mother. You’re both old enough to make your own choices. However, this new relationship of yours shouldn’t interfere with your grades, and it wont interfere with your training. Is that understood?”

“Yes sir” Jason says deferentially, happy enough to not be in trouble with Bruce.

“Whatever”.

Barbara, as usual was defiant, but that was the closest they were going to get to agreement when it came to her. 

“Good. I’m happy for you both….finding someone, someone really special, is something that you should hope for an aspire to”.

He wasn’t good at this naturally, but being in the cowl made him even worse at it. Luckily, Jason was good enough at discerning what Barbara needed at any given moment, and he leans in to peck her cheek. “I agree”.

“Shut up”.

She didn’t let go of his hand though, and that fact was enough to show she was just embarrassed. “Awwww that’s so adorable!” Dinah gushes while turning to Vic. “They’re already acting like a married couple!”

“Back to the journal” Bruce interjects, wanting to save himself and the two lovebirds the embarrassment. “Apparently, archaeologists and historians are wrong. The land of Vinland, a land supposedly encompassing the St. Lawrence river, is actually here in Gotham. Most attribute the discovery of Vinland to Leif Erichson around 1000 A.D, but according to this journal Leorblak, a Jarl originally from Norway, landed here a full two hundred years before that and established a colony”.

“Well...what happened to it?”

“I don’t know yet. His journal is surprisingly descriptive, which hints at some time spent in England where he would have learned to write in archaic english. All I really know is that their stay here was brief as no archeological evidence outside of the burial chamber has been discovered in Gotham so far”.

“Is there anything else that’s important to know?” Vic asks. 

“Only that his wife was entombed alive with him where she slit her own throat to join him in death. He was murdered and she was forced into the tomb. Before she killed herself, she wrote what appeared to be a curse on the wall in Gaelic” he explains. “That and the fact that Leoblak documents a raid in Ireland where he took an Irish wife, named Harleigha, is enough evidence for me to say that the woman with him is his wife”.

“And the sword?” Jason asks, his mind fixated.

“Certainly not of Norse craftsmanship. It’s much more in line with Saxon Briton weapon design which, again, makes it centuries older. The templar cross that Jason noted, was added much later”.

“Woah wait. The Templar order? They were founded in Jerusalem in 1191 and died out in 1312. That’s three hundred years at best between when this sword was added and when Leorblak and his wife so romantically died”.

Vic looked at his wife shocked, surprised that that information had come out of her mouth. Everyone else was equally shocked, and Dinah found herself a little offended. “What? I read too”.

“Canary is correct” Bruce says. “The timelines don’t match up”.

“That means...someone knew about this grave, centuries after it had been dug, and...came back to put the sword there?”

It was a discomforting feeling, and the thought sent shivers down everyone’s spine though they couldn’t exactly place.

“Sooo...someone is creeping around ancient tombs that we don’t even know about, and putting swords and stuff from halfway around the world, hundreds of years later, in them? What would they have to gain from all of that”.

Nobody could answer Dinah’s question, and that was perhaps the most frightening part.

“We can’t focus on this right now”.

Bruce looks up towards the time and realizes that it was getting closer and closer to zero hour. “Right now we have to focus on the Iceberg Lounge and the two major mob bosses assembling there right at this moment. Is everyone ready?”

“Yup!”

“Let’s go kick some butt puddin’. I need me some action!”

“I’m going to kick Mandragora’s fucking teeth in”.

“Barbara! Language!”

Jason wasn’t ready to join in with the random carousing, as his eyes were still being drawn back to the sword. He...couldn’t look away.

“You okay sweetie?”

He shakes out of his revelry once again as his mother comes up beside him to place a hand on his shoulder. “Ohh, yeah, yeah. Sorry, it’s just...a cool sword. Anyway’s let’s go. The sooner Mr. Cobblepot is freed from Bertinelli and Mandragora, the better”.

The boy turns and moves towards the batmobile. Barbara exchanges a look with her mother and follows after the boy, eager for a good fight as well. 

“It’s always great when we get to do these things as a family! Imagine how badass we’ll be when little Bruce, Rosaleen, Charlie, Victory, Mary and Martha can join us! A whole bat brigade!”

Dinah was enthusiastic about such a thought, though Harleen found herself worried about the day when inevitably the children would grow up, and like Jason and Barbara before them, they’d want to help. 

Still, that was a long way off.

And right now?   
  


Kicking out the last of the mob, a scourge that had haunted Gotham for a century now, was right around the corner. 

She was ready.

**_The Iceberg Lounge_ **

“Oswald”.

“Black Mask. So nice to see you tonight” the short little man says while extending his hand out to the woman. He was nervous, and it showed. ‘God I hope she doesn’t realize’.

Helena indeed didn’t attribute the man’s nervousness to the fact of his upcoming betrayal. ‘He’s much too weak and stupid for that’ she had thought to herself, knowing that if she were in his position she herself would pull a double cross of some sort.

She takes his hand as if it was infected, and barley shakes it. “Is everything ready?”

The men milling around her were just as eager, all being rather new to working for the frightening woman. Still, her promise of ruling Gotham city alone? Without having to kick back to the sole remaining crime family? That was a drug that was too difficult for them to ignore.

“It is. It is. Mr. Mandragora is already waiting inside with his lieutenants. He’s happy to meet with you to discuss this peace. We’re all waiting with bated breath. Finally Gotham can have a quiet night” the man jokes, chuckling softly while leaning into the woman.

“First floor janitors closet. You’ll find your weapons there. Get past the checkpoint and have your men take their seats on the right side of the hall” he whispers, moving them to the entrance to the club where one of Steven Mandragora’s men was waiting for her, apparently having been sent to ensure that the Black Mask’s men were following the rules of the truce. 

Helena smiles under her mask, salivating at the thought of being able to finally kill Mandragora. ‘No more haunting my dreams you fat fuck’.

“And what of his men? Did you check them? Ensure they are unarmed?”

“It’s already been done. Not a pocket knife between them” he says.

“Good. Very good. You’ve done well Oswald. After tonight you will find yourself handsomely rewarded” she says, having no intention of leaving the Penguin alive either.    
  
“Well that would be nice to finally get some bloody recognition in this city”.

She turns to look at him blankly, a cue that he picks up on quickly.    
  
“Well...I shall wait here and join you in a moment” he intones. “I have to use the restroom”.

“Yes. Ensure that you don’t piss yourself at the sight of blood little man” Helena jokes, drawing laughter from her crew. Oswald smiles and laughs along before turning and letting the smile fall. ‘Fucking cunt’.

He moves down the hallway and into the bathroom, not staying to watch all of Bertinelli’s men go through the checkpoint.

‘Batman...where the hell are you?’

His major fear was that as soon as it was discovered that neither side had any bullets to use it would quickly turn into a unified front against him. ‘Don’t leave me out to dry! Please! I’m not the bad guy here. Jenny needs me’.

Seemingly as an answer from above, his phone goes off, him having received a text.

“What in the bloody…”.

His eyes open wide as he sees who it is, or rather, guesses at who it is. The text reads “Montoya and her men are in position. We are waiting for the signal. Stay out of this”.

He puts the phone back in his pocket and moves towards the door, having prematurely sealed all other exits from the outside. The main entrance was the only way in or our now, and he was going to seal it. 

“Knew you wouldn’t give up on me bats” he says as he exits the building and closes the doors. He quickly stoops down to the bush on one of the sides of the door and retracts a chain and lock. “Merry early Christmas bats” he hums out to himself while he slips the chain around the door handles and clicks the lock closed through the links.

“I hope you remember…”.

He feels something cold pressed against his neck, and his heart almost stops as he knows exactly what it is. “Who the hell are you?”

“O...Os..Os…”.

“You Cobblepot? It’s too dark to get a positive I.D. You look short and fat enough to be him”.

“Y….yes...I’m...I’m…”.

He’s roughly grasped by the arm and pulled away. “Stop yer stuttering. Ain’t gonna kill ya. I’m a cop. Harvey Bullock. Now shut up and pull back. Don’t need you screwing anything up”.

He heaves a sigh of relief as the pistol is taken away, and his smile is as clear as the nose on his face. “Ohh thank God officer. Thank the Lord”.

“Yeah, yeah. Should probably thank Batman. Told Montoya to give you a break for this shit. If it were up to me? You’d be locked up with Mandragora and the Bertinelli girl” he says, casting a look both ways across the street as he tries to clandestinely lead the Penguin to the hidden police units.

“But she listens to the bat and you seem to be an asset so, be an asset, and shut up”.

Oswald didn’t want to go into how the exact opposite purpose of an asset was for them to “shut up” but he knew that now wasn’t a good time to try and crack wise. All he knew was that if something happened he wasn’t going to be right in the middle of it.

‘Now, I can only hope they don’t burn down the Lounge’.

**_Iceberg Lounge Main Ballroom_ **

Mandragora was seated at the table, heaving deeply as he tried to breath. “Guido, my oxygen mask” he calls out barely, allowing the other man who was his servant to help him strap the plastic breathing aid over his face.

He slaps the man’s hands away and takes deep breaths, feeling a bit of rely now that the oxygen was being pumped into his lungs. Since he’d taken power, he’d grown lazier and his already massive frame had grown more corpulent. Most of his guys were amazed that the chair itself could hold him up.

“Guido...are the men...ready?”

“Yes Don Mandragora. The weapons were right where Penguin said they’d be”.

“Good. Very good. Let the...cagna talk...but...when I raise my hand...have them kill her and her man for daring to betray me”.

“Yes sir”.

One cue the woman entered the hall, and she walks with a purpose towards the table. The two mob bosses glare at one another as Helena takes a seat, two of her most trusted men beside her while the others filter into the empty ballroom.

“Hello Uncle Mandragora”.

He couldn’t help but smirk at that, having already guessed at her identity. “ I figured it was you…” he wheezes. “The little piccola ragazza”.

Helena doesn’t respond and only casts a glance down at the food set about on the table. “I’d invite you to eat Helena but...I figured you wouldn’t want to. Not with your little...security blanket” he chuckles before descending into a fit of coughing.

“You’re a lot fatter than I remember”.

He glares the the younger woman and hates that he cannot ascertain anything but the emotion in her eyes, the rest of her face being hidden behind her truly frightening mask. “Is that what being on top of the world does to a man?” she asks. “Does it make him lazy? Indolent? Did you really think nobody would ever come for you”.

“Well...with Falcone dead there was truly nobody left”.

She wags her finger in disapproval, lightly tsking. “You know that’s not true. You see...when you killed my father you left me alive. You, of all people, should know that that’s never a good idea”.

“Do you want my honest answer?” he asks with a smile. 

She nods, not saying a word.

“I figured...you’d do the smart thing. Run off to Italy...find a nice boy. Get married. Have a life. An actual life” he wheezes out. He gets a faraway look in his eye as he thinks back to the past. “That’s what I wanted for you…”.

“You killed my father”.

It was a simple sentence, but in their world? It explained everything. 

Mandragora looks down again and shakes his head. “No I didn’t”.

Helena slams her fist down on the table, shaking everything and startling the men who move forward. “DON’T FUCKING LIE TO ME!!”

“I’m not...I killed...Franco...Bertinelli...but I didn’t kill your father”.

That stopped Black Mask in her tracks, and she stays with her hands palms down on the table, continuing to glare at the man. “What are you talking about. Stop lying…”.

“I’m dying Helena” he says. “You can see it. I can see it. In our line of work, what business….does a dying man have with a lie?” he chuckles. “The city can’t prosecute a dead man”.

“You’re lying. Franco Bertinelli and Maria Bertinelli are my parens. You killed both of…”.

“You’re right on seventy five percent of it. As I said, Franco? Hehe, he wasn’t your father” he explains. “You see...Maria? She was very lonely when Franco married her. He was very demanding of her and one foot out of line? Tsk tsk tsk, that would earn her a beating. Luckily, she had guards around her the whole time. Most of them were Franco’s friends. Including one”.

The wistful look returns to his eyes and he shakes his head. He turns to look into Helena’s eyes. “I loved your mother….and I hated her too. I offered her everything I had...and she said no. She wouldn’t leave Franco. But...I always took pleasure...in knowing, that in the end...with you? I’d won”.

“No...no..” Helena says, searching the man’s eyes for any trace of a lie.

“When it came time to clear Gotham, reset the board, I jumped at it. I killed your mother for not loving me. For using me. Playing with me out of her boredom and anger. I killed Franco, for keeping the one thing I truly wanted away from me”.

“You’re a lying coglione!”.

She didn’t have the depth of conviction in her voice that she desperately wanted. Needed even. Something about his words...the way he said them….

She couldn’t deny that he was convincing. 

“There’s a reason you feel hate when you stare in the mirror Helena” he says. “You see me, because you are me. In too many ways. I let you go that day….like I said, wanting you to go on and be happy. Forget this city and her wars. But you didn’t. You are me Helena. My greatest disappointment”.

He moves his hand upwards and signals for his men to come out of their hidden positions. “But...today, I do what I should’ve known to do all those years ago. Killing my own daughter...heh...how many others, can say that they’ve given so much up for this life…”.

“Cobblepot” Helena seethes.

“You’re still so new to this game Helena...maybe if I’d tutored you...this wouldn’t have happened”.

“Not as new as you think” Helena says, signalling her own men who, to her surprise, also exit from the other side, carrying assault rifles. 

“Heh...you really are my little girl”.

“Don’t fucking call me that”.

“Are you really willing to die? Just to kill me? Your father?”

Helena smiles under her mask, trying to contain the rage that was causing her body to shake. “Who else can say they’d given up so much for this life?” she taunts, turning her had and shouting, “Ice these fuckers!”

On cue, all of the armed goons open up with their rifles, and Helena has just enough time to duck and get onto the floor while Mandragora can only flinch in shock and fear. 

The firing goes on for many seconds, though nobody falls. The firing slowly stops, and all of the goons realize that their rifles weren’t loaded with anything other than blanks. “What the fuck...Cobblepot set us both up?” one of them shouts.

Helena’s mind was working as quick as possible though, and she sees the steak knife that had fallen to the floor when had dived, taking the table cloth and the items atop it with her. She reaches out and grabs it by the hilt, knowing exactly what she had to do.

She jumps up with the intensity of a loaded spring and before he can even react, the guard standing to Mandragora’s immediate right had his throat slit open. Blood spurts out everywhere, like a geyser and he attempts to staunch the bleeding by bringing his hands up. This doesn’t work, and all he accomplishes is to slow his rapidly approaching death. The guard on the left of the corpulent man fares no better as he finds a fork wedged into his eye. 

The pain alone is enough to distract him, leaving Mandragora open to attack. He gasps as Helena descends upon him, landing atop his body and sending the chair he was in careening backwards. The knife plunges downwards and buries itself into his chest before anyone can react.

That wasn’t the end though, and Helena keeps bringing the knife up and down, stabbing the man in various parts of his body. She doesn’t hear the glass of the ceiling above her shatter, nor does she focus on the smoke that had quickly begun to fill the room and disorientate all of the men within.

She focuses on bringing the knife up and down into Mandragora’s face. His struggles were becoming much more feeble as he attempted to stop her, and his hands had fallen limply to his side.

All around her, dark shapes were rushing through the mist, punching and knocking out her and Mandragora’s men at will, moving like ghosts that nobody could land a hit on in their state. All that mattered to her was the blood...blood that she knew was pumping through her veins at that very moment.

“BASTARDO!”

Her whole life had been a lie. Her desire for vengeance was focused on a man who was not her father and a mother who had betrayed her by the very act of lying to her, convincing her that the life she was given was something that it wasn’t.

She’d thrown everything away for this life. Everything! She knew that she deserved better, but was unlikely to ever receive it.

Mandragora was dead now, and his body barely resisted the inward thrusts of her knife as she carved him up. Dying by a steak knife? It was a strange way for a mafioso to go, especially the only one who had managed to survive the Bertinelli-Falcone War, the Owl War and the subsequent crackdowns of Mayor Harvey Dent and the Batman.

But still, her he was, dead, and Helena couldn’t help the tears that were slowly sliding down the inner portion of her mask. 

She’d come all this way, all these years….and she still felt so empty. Her life’s mission was complete. The man on the ground before her was dead. She was now free to rule Gotham.

The smoke begins to swirl in over her just as she ceases her attack upon the corpulent cadaver, and she coughs brutally as the knife falls away from her. She couldn’t breath, and her eyes were beginning to tear up. 

The last thing she sees is a shape moving at her from within the mist, and the last thing she feels before darkness closes around her is its fist reaching out towards her face.

So ended the Mandragora-Mask War.

Not with a bang, but a whimper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't write a long drawn out battle between Black Mask and the Bat family because I always saw Helena's struggle as a personal one, and I wanted to end it with her relationship to the Batclan being adversarial by nature due to their separate inclinations, but also rather impersonal. Helena only cared about vengeance and really...Batman was not the one got in the way of that. She got what she wanted. Was it worth it?......
> 
> I don't think so.


	11. Chapter 11

**_Gotham News Network_ **

“This is Vicki Vale welcoming you to our nightly news bulletin. Last night an altercation occurred between Mob Boss Steven Mandragora, Carmine Falcone’s former lieutenant, and Helena Bertinelli, daughter of the late Franco Bertinelli, a rival of Falcone and Mandragora’s before he was killed”.

The woman looks down at her papers and almost grimaces at the grisly scene described, having even been given a few pictures by her personal photographer to showcase the scene of the crime. She collects herself and looks back up into the camera, wearing a stoic expression. “We have confirmed reports, and indeed photographic evidence of the Batman collaborating with the police on this bust, which was apparently a meeting set up between the two rivals with the intent of one or the other’s betrayal”.

The camera pans out to a scene that had happened right outside of the Iceberg Lounge following the quick and effective roundup by the Bat clan. It showed them overseeing and assisting with the transport of the many unconscious thugs. 

The camera pans in to show the commissioner speaking to Batman and Batwoman, Katana also having been involved in the raid. In the background the two Robins mill about beside Black Canary and the Question.

“This seems to be certifiable proof that the commissioner’s objections that she is not harboring a vigilante and his team is a lie. In past years the commissioner has been quick to stress that the cooperation she had with the so called, Bat family, was minimal and amounted only to asking for their help occasionally. However, one would be remiss if I didn’t point out that if they had cooperated on this case, it still led to the effective destruction of the only two functional organized crime families left in Gotham” Vicki says, refusing to take a completely anti-Batman stance, no matter how much her employers might wish her to do.

She shuffles the papers back into place.

“Unfortunately, the Batman and his group were not able to apprehend and stop Helena Bertinelli, a.k.a the Black Mask, in time to prevent her from stabbing Steven Mandragora to death. At this time she and all of her accomplices have been placed under arrest, alongside the remaining members of the Mandragora crime family”.

Vicki Vale looks into the camera and smiles slightly.

“It feels as if Gotham can breath for a little while. Maybe...maybe the worst is behind us and this can be a new chapter in our great city’s history. In other news…”.

**_The Batcave_ **

“Dammit. How could she possibly have gotten that footage?” Harleen asks as they all stare at the computer screen.

“Well, she is a very good reporter. She probably has her ways. It looks like it was taken from a roof top across the street from the Lounge” Vic says, reaching down to pick up Rosaleen who was tugging on his pants leg. Bruce, Charlie and Victor were over on the other end of the cave, playing with Mary and Martha under Dinah and Elise’s watchful eyes.

They wanted to keep the kids out of the cave initially but it had proven impossible, especially with their older sister/cousin constantly serving as an accomplice. So they’d caved, pun intended, and now the children had a little play area sequestered on the opposite side of the work area.

“Dammit...Montoya isn’t going to like this”.

“Nobody is”.

The group turns to see Mayor Dent and Pamela descending the stairs, and the kids instantly drop their toys to rush at their aunt and uncle. “Uncle Harvey! Aunt Pamela!”.

In Harvey’s arms was a now squirming Harleen who wanted to join in on the fun with the other kids. “Alright my flower. Alright. Just be careful okay? No rough housing...and she isn’t listening” Harvey says, watching as his daughter is enveloped in hugs from Martha and Mary, in turn being pulled away by the boys.

“It’s been a while since she’s seen them...ooof”.

Pamela herself was quickly surrounded by Dinah and Harleen, both blondes hugging the redhead between them as gently as they could.

“Yeah, I missed you both too” she says, rubbing the women’s shoulders. “But, may I remind you that I’m pregnant? I’m already crowded enough as it is”.

Harleen and Dinah both back off, but remain as close as possible as they bring her to chair. “Sit down then Pam. Jeez, standing here with a bowling ball sized belly. Ain’t healthy”.

“You should know Mrs...I popped out four kids no problem”.

“Aww jealous?” Dinah teases.

“Hardly”. Pamela groans as she takes the chair, her hand moving to her back to try and work out the soreness. “I would like to stay in one piece during my labor thank you very much”.

Harleen was on her knees beside the chair, smiling at her friend up and down. “Ohh Pam, you look so beautiful”.

Pamela lowers her hands to her belly and rubs it lovingly. “You’re just saying that because you’re angling to be a godmother again”.

“Sorry Harls” Dinah interjects. “This one’s spoken for”. The Irish woman leans in and presses her ear to Pamela’s stomach, pretending that she could hear the baby. “She’s real excited to meet her aunt Dinah”.

“Pfft, you two are so childish. Stop treating my daughter like a freakshow exhibit please”.

The women good naturedly back off, though the smile remains on their faces. “Speaking of goddaughters. Harleen Jr.!”

The little girl hears her aunt Harleen’s call and quickly rushes over alongside Mary and Martha who already knew that they would be called upon to say hello to their own godmother. Harleen jumps into her elder namesake’s arms and the blonde bites her lip and twirls the giggling green skinned girl about.

“And how is one of my very many cuties doing today huh? Long time no see baby girl”

“I’m fine Aunt Harleen” she giggles.    
  
“Daddy and mommy being sticklers for rules still?”

She turns back to her mother and blushes at the question, shaking her head no. “No huh? She letting you have any candy sweetie?”

“Nooo...candy is bad for her teeth”.

Harleen winks and begins to carry the girl away. “Let’s get you some candy”.

“Harley!”

“Just getting my goddaughter some candy from my secret stash. Girls...give your godmama some lovin’ while we’re getting some candy”.

Martha and Mary latch onto the woman’s side with a wide smile on each of their faces as Pamela can’t get away, refusing to abandon the two cuties in her lap while also being much too pregnant to move too quickly.

She hugs them and nuzzles their foreheads, giving each one a kiss. “And how are you two? I’ve missed you tons..HARLEY DON’T YOU DARE GIVE HER…”.

“Too late”.    
  
Harley returns from around the computer with little Harleen, who was already chewing on a chocolate bar. The little girl was quick to defend herself. “Aunt Harley said it was alright!”.

Pamela couldn’t help but smile and shake her head, bouncing Mary and Martha lightly. “I wish I had the same knowledge of how to corrupt your kids as you do mine”.

“Aww let her live a bit Red” Harley says, delivering one quick final kiss to her cheek before putting her down and giving her a little push towards the other kids. “Now that you’re all sugared up sweetie, go play with the boys and burn off your energy”.

  
The girls inhabiting Pamela’s lap did the same, leaving the three women alone for the moment. “Harleen...you’re going to kill me”.

“Nah don’t worry” Dinah says with her arm around Pamela’s shoulder. “She’s still on track to being the first female president of the United States, or the first astronaut to land on Mars or whatever it is you and Harvey are training her for…”.

Harvey meanwhile had approached Vic and Bruce, and had shaken both of their hands in greeting. It was clear that there was something important on his mind though. Something he wanted go over. “Harvey...how are you?”

“I’m alright Bruce. Well as can be expected. And you?”

“Fine myself”.

Harvey feels his eyes narrow as he stares at the man, shaking his head and sighing. “Bruce...we have a problem”.

“What’s going on?”

“That little stunt you pulled with Mandragora and Bertinelli” Harvey angrily hisses before calming down. “Do you realize how this makes me and Montoya look? The city council is screaming for your head. They’re saying it’s your fault that Mandragora is dead. Not that they really care”.

“Harvey” Bruce begins tepidly, knowing how hard the position of mayor was for someone who had to deal with the Batman’s presence on a constant basis. Add this to the preparations being done by Luthor?

He doubted it was easy for the man.

“Why didn’t you tell me this was happening Bruce?”

“We had to keep it quiet Harvey” Vic says, wanting to stick up for Bruce. “We had to act fast and telling you kind of slipped through the cracks. We’re sorry”.

“Slipped through...slipped through the cracks really? Bruce...I need to know about these things in advance okay? That way I can do some damage control without it seeming like I’m doing damage control. Now I’m looking like the idiot who is covering up the Batman while pretending he isn’t”.

Bruce was cowed a bit by that, the last thing he had wanted to do was embarrass his friend. “I’m sorry Harvey. Does Montoya feel this way as well?”

“No, she doesn’t because, guess what..you clued her in on it and involved her. How the hell did those pictures get out anyways?”

“We’re not really sure right now. Best we can say is some shutterbug happened to notice or hear all the commotion and decided to look out the window” Bruce says. “Undoubtedly the sight of Batman standing beside the police commissioner while leading a few bound men out of the lounge was considered worthy of a photo”.

Harvey places his face in his palm and nods along to the man’s reasoning. “Alright, yeah, I guess that would make sense. Dammit. Bruce...I still need to be clued in on these things, especially when it’s this big. Is that too much to ask?”

“No, it isn’t Harvey”.

“Alright good. Damn. Sorry I lost it a bit with you there. You just don’t know what it’s like to have the city council on your ass” Harvey says, suddenly sheepishly. 

Bruce smiles and nods, knowing that he indeed didn’t quite know what that was like. ‘Thank God I stayed out of politics’.

His face falls when he realizes there was one key fact he was omitting and in fact had been omitted with the express permission of Renee Montoya. “Harvey, there’s another thing”.

“Ohh jeez, what now?”

“This whole thing...it wouldn’t have worked without Oswald Cobblepot. He was instrumental in setting the two of them up”.

Harvey was set aback by that, and he didn’t quite know what to say. “So..let me guess, nobody else knows about this?”

“Nobody else besides everyone in this cave” Bruce admits.

“So you’re going to use Cobblepot to what? Spy on the criminal underworld?” Harvey asks incredulously. “And what does he want in return?”

“To continue running his rackets. Small time, non violent…”.

“Bullshit!”

“Harvey, calm down buddy” Vic says, slowly approaching the man. Harvey ignores him and advances on Bruce, whose eyes had taken on the coldness of steel. “You’re making a deal with a criminal. Call it what it is. You’re allowing a criminal to commit a crime, major crimes”.

“We have no choice” Bruce defends himself. “Someone is going to fill that power vacuum. They always have in Gotham. With Superman and the League encircling the United States, and Luthor’s plan underway, we can’t afford to leave this up to chance”.

“Motherfucker…”.

“Language!” Pamela shouts from across the room, the women now watching the interaction nervously. Harvey looks down at the floor and angrily shakes his head. “Bruce...I swear to God, if this goes further? I’ll pull you down to the station myself. Do you hear me?”

Bruce is quiet, trying to gauge his friend and the reaction he was having to this news. “I understand. Just know this Harvey, it’s for the best. Oswald isn’t a bad man. With him in our camp we can know what’s going on the streets with pinpoint accuracy, and even work to control his excesses”.

Harvey turns away to watch his daughter playing with the other kids. It was one of the few things that calmed him down when he lost his temper like he did. “Alright Bruce. Alright. I wont argue on it anymore. Let’s just...be smart alright? We have a lot of eggs in our basket right now”.

Bruce doesn’t get a chance to respond in the affirmative as Alfred and Elise are at the top of the stairs, apparently wanting to summon the family up for dinner.

“Ladies and gentlemen! And...younger ladies and gentlemen. Dinner is served!”

The group excitedly moves up out of their seated positions, with Harleen practically dragging the woman away in order for her to eat.

“Come on Pam. Alfred made your favorite. Stuffed Eggplant with Fettuccine cheese”.

“Well...that does sound pretty good”.

It was clear from the furtive glances she was throwing backwards that Pam was concerned for her husband who seemed to still be quite agitated. He waves her on though, not wanting her to worry.

“Let’s table this for now...but if he gives you any actionable information? You will let Montoya know about it before making a move. We clear?”

“You don’t give me orders Harvey” Bruce says before softening. “But as your friend? I’ll do that for you”.

**_32 Years Prior, Smallville, Kansas_ **

“I said shut the fuck up Martha”.

“Why? You gonna hit me again you drunken piece of shi…”.

The man swerves the truck, and the woman sitting in the passenger seat was so sure that that was indeed what he was planning to do that she flinched and hid into herself, hating that she was so weak at that moment. 

“What the hell...did you see that?”

The truck had come to a stop, and that was enough to warn the woman that she wasn’t going to get hit….for now.

“See what?”

Jonathan Kent, her husband, turns to her and rapidly points out of the window. “That big ass ole’ meteor thing that buzzed across the road. You blind and dumb woman?” Before she could say anything back, he’d opened the door and was rushing into the cornfield, following the burning trail that the meteor, or whatever it was, had apparently left.

“Hold on! Wait up!”

She hated the man, but she was still afraid of being left alone, and his company was better than no company after all. The blond haired girl followed after the man, rushing through the rising stalks of corn that were endemic to this region. 

She could only hear the sound of his footfalls from far off as not all of the corn had been burnt through. “John! John! We shouldn’t go chasing after this...oww”.    
  
She trips and falls over a rock, twisting her ankle harshly as she stays on the ground to try and touch it. The tears were already falling down her face at the pain the trip had caused her. “Jonathan! Help me please! I’m hurt!”.

She gets no response from her husband, though she knows he’s close enough nearby to have heard her. She hears his cursing and excitement, and part of her wants to know what had so interested him. Slowly she moves to her feet, and begins to limp towards the area.

Every step was torturous, and she couldn’t help but cry out and almost fall again. “Dammit John, please...help me!”

“Get your fat ass over here and see this crazy shit Martha!”.

It takes a few more minutes, but eventually she breaks out into the clearing where the meteor had crashed. She was angered by her pain now, and she wanted to scream and shout in frustration at the man who’d left her behind. That is...until her eyes land on the object that had crash landed

It was most certainly wasn’t a meteor.

“Is...is that a space ship?”

“Gee nothin’ gets past you does it? Of course it’s a spaceship ya moron”.

Jonathan was standing around the edge of the crater, looking down into the hole. “Get on in there and see if it opens”.

Her eyes go wide at that and fearful, her mind flashing with all the times an alien had come from a spaceship to kill some poor unfortunate couple, just like they were. “Ain’t you gonna do it?”

“Nah, I’m the one who works. I get hurt and whose gonna feed ya?” he asks with a malicious smirk. “Certainly ain’t that family of yours. They hate yer guts for stealing from ‘em”.

She becomes indignant at that.

“That was you! Not me! I just took the fall for you so you wouldn’t go to jail and you know…”.

Before she could say anymore, Jonathan Kent reaches forward and pushes her into the crater, not caring for her already injured ankle which, mercifully for her, was not injured any further. She falls and lands on her back atop the metallic object. “Ohhh…” she groans out in pain.

She sees Jonathan peak her head over the side at her, grinning like a madman.

“You dead?”

“I wish I was…”.

“Well move your ass. We ain’t got all night. See if it opens or some shit. Better you get eaten than me”.

Suddenly, a cry can be heard, and Martha instantly knew what it was. “That...that sounds like a baby” she says, moving up slowly and looking over the rocket like device. “A baby? How the hell a baby get alla way out here?”

She begins to crawl over the object and sees what looks like a hatch. “It’s coming from inside the rocket”. She looks into the glass and indeed sees a little baby, swaddled up in a blue blanket and throwing its arms about as it cried. 

“Ohh sweetie...shhh...it’s okay. I’m gonna get you out of there”.

Martha looks back and forth, seeing only one possible way to open up the device. She reaches forth and grabs the hand, opening the hatch which unleashes with a whoosh of air.

She doesn’t waste any time in reaching in for the dark haired little baby, which still cries as her hands go to his waist to pick him up.

“All it’s got is some fuckin’ baby in there? You shitting me?”

Martha ignored her husband and instead looks at the little boy, forgetting her pain for a moment as she brings him into her chest and rubs his back. “Shh awww, ain’t you a little darlin’. Shh it’s okay. It’s okay”. She lightly bounces him and eventually the little boy calms down. The baby places his thumb inside of his mouth and begins to suckle on it and his eyes, bright blue, close slowly as he’s comforted by the sound of the woman’s heartbeat.

With one hand, Martha reaches down to twirl her finger through the little thatch of dark hair atop his head.

“Shit...you know what this means?”

“No. What’s it mean?” she asks, focused only on the child.

“We’re gonna be fucking rich. Here, hand the brat up to me”.

She turns to see Jonathan reaching into the pit and recoils in disgust. “You’re not taking him from..”.

“Relax you dumb bitch. Hand him up so I can get the two of you out of that hole.This little thing is gonna make us rich! Think about it! He’s an alien”.

  
Reluctantly, Martha hands the child up to Jon who takes it and turns, walking back to the truck. “What about me?!” Martha calls out, though Jon ignores her and focuses on the child he was irresponsibly holding in his arms. ‘The baby!’ she thinks, rushing out of the hole and pulling herself up as best as she could.

“Jon! Jon! Support his head!” she calls out as she peaks over the side, just barely getting up.

“You’re gonna make me millions. I’ll come back here tonight with my tow truck and bring the rocket back. Don’t want anyone knowin’ about you until we know what do with ya. Tell the government and they’ll dissect ya without us even getting a red cent”.

The baby wasn’t aware of what the man was saying, and he didn’t care. All he knew was that he didn’t like being handled by him, and he missed the touch of the woman who had been doing so moments before. He begins to cry out, having quickly awoken from his slumber.

“Eh he’s crying”.

Martha had just caught up to him, having limped the whole way to catch up to the man and ensure that the baby wouldn’t be hurt by his negligence.

“Here” he says, practically throwing the bundle into the woman’s arms. Martha stumbles but is just able to catch the boy before she drops him. She glares at Jon’s back and slowly starts to move to the truck. Her mind was on the little boy in her arms though, and for some reason, he instantly brightens her spirits.

“I’m going to name you...Clark. How do you like that name huh? Little baby Clark”.

The boy wasn’t aware of what the words meant, or even what a Clark was, let alone if he liked it. All he really knew was that he was back in the woman’s arms, and comfortable. He drifts off to sleep just as Martha manages to slip back into the passenger seat of the truck which instantly takes off down the road.

**_Gotham City, Rooftop of GCPD, Present Day_ **

“Are you sure he called me to be here tonight Renee?”

Tatsu was nervous and it showed in her voice. The commissioner reaches out to rub her girlfriend’s cheek, pulling her close to ward of the winter chill. “You’re cute when you’re nervous. Yeah, he called me to tell me to bring you up here tonight”.

Tatsu blushes and rolls her eyes, looking into the night sky as if searching the Batman out herself. “I hope he has decided to judge me as honorable”. 

“I’m sure he has. After all that work you did on the Bertinelli bust? And these past few years? Trust me. You’re in”.

The japanese woman wasn’t too comforted by the woman’s words, and instead tries to retreat inward and search out an inner peace. ‘If only I hadn’t killed on that first day in Gotham’ she laments, having heard it from the man himself that her lack of aversion to killing was one of the reasons he didn’t feel she could be trusted just yet.

  
She respected that, and since she saw him as a more than worthy leader she was willing to earn his trust. In six years, her sword had not fatally tasted blood. The soultaker screamed out for it, but she denied it that pleasure.    
  
“Katana, Commissioner”.

The voice comes from the dark as usual with the man, and he steps forth to expose himself to the two women. He wasn’t alone though as Batwoman stood beside him.

Tatsu instantly bows, wanting to show deference to the man who she was desperately hoping would become her leader, and accept her into his clan. “Battoman kyo no aisatsu”

Batman gently bows as well, returning the sign of respect to the woman. Batwoman just smiles and crosses her arms while looking at Batman.

It seemed that they had had a conversation, something that wasn’t uncommon between the two, and had mutually come to an agreement about what was to be done with the woman. 

“Katana...I have to thank you for the assistance you gave us at the Iceberg Lounge and all of the good you’ve done over the years”.

Katana was dead silent, allowing the man to continue on with his words despite the fact that her heartbeat was rushing against the confines of her chest. 

“We’ve all discussed it, and we’d now like to formally welcome you into our little group”. He reaches into his utility belt and retracts a communicator. “This will allow you to contact us or be contacted should you need us. Over time...I’m sure we’ll collaborate further”.

Tatsu was walking on air, but all she could do was bow and try to get out an adequate thank you, though she stutters. Montoya moves up beside her and places a calming hand on her back. “What she’s trying to say is that she’s honored and thanks you for welcoming her into the fold. Ain’t that right Tatsu”.

  
“Hai...yes…”.

“You’ve earned it sister. You kick some serious ass” Batwoman congratulates her. “And you’ve been a good girl all these years. No murderey stuff, so that’s good”.

Batman nods along. “Your commitment to the preservation of life, even those that you would normally deem unworthy, has been impressive”.

Tatsu was at a complete loss for words. She was finally part of the group, even as someone on the further ring of it, that she had been trying to be seen as honorable enough to join for years. “Call on me should you ever need me Shogun Batman, and I shall be right there beside all of you” she intones stoically. “I swear upon my honor”.

Batman turns to Montoya, accepting the Japanese woman’s words without question. “Montoya...we need to talk”.

“What about?”

“The photograph of us talking follow the Iceberg bust” he says, clearing up her confusion. “Ohh yeah...I’ve got some crap for that” she admits, rubbing the back of her head. “No more than usual though. It’s kind of an open secret”.

“I think it should stop being so”.

“What?” she asks in shock, remembering how secrecy about their partnership, as much as could allowed, was one of the prerequisites for him even working with the GCPD. “We think…” Batwoman says while stepping forward. “That for the sake of being more honest, it would be okay if you told everyone that yeah, you were working with us, no you didn’t know our identities, and no you won’t bring us in without just cause”.

“But…..”.

“Things are rapidly changing in Gotham” Bruce explains. “And we need to be ready for it. The kind of changes that are occurring? It’s best that our leadership is as transparent as possible”.

“I assume this has to do with Superman and Lex Luthor’s arrival within the city?”

Everyone turns to Katana, frightening the woman that she might have spoken out of turn. “You’d be correct Katana” Batman says, pleased by her ability to discern the truth so far. “We think, at your earliest possible convenience, that you should announce your intentions to the city”.

“Which are?”

“To keep it safe duh! But...kind of more so openly with our help. We know a lot of your cops still don’t like us. Still don’t trust us, but we’ve won over a good amount of them right?” Harleen asks curiously. 

“About half of the apartment trusts you guys, a quarter are neutral and the last quarter hate your guts”.

“Those are better numbers than we’d initially hoped for” Harleen says to Bruce. “Hmm”.

The blond turns back to the commissioner with a smile. “We’ll get them up to one hundred percent commish, or at the very least ninety nine percent but we can only do that by being honest”.

Montoya begins to pace back and forth across the roof, unsure of what she was supposed to do with this. What would it mean? Why now? What did they have planned?

“Anyone else know about this plan of yours?”   
  


Bruce nods.

“He does but we’re going to let him give you his word on the matter Expect his call in a few days where he’ll ask to discuss “Our mutual friends” he says, using the code phrase that the hispanic woman was meant to look out for. 

“Alright. Damn. Can you tell me what’s prompting this though? All seems rather drastic. I mean, sure, we’ve all busted some big time scumbags in our time together but most of it has been petty crooks and shit. I know you said something about Superman, but what does that have to do with Gotham?”

Bruce was torn between wanting to tell the woman everything, and yet he knew it wasn’t time. Still he had to give her something. Trust was a two way street.

“Let’s just say that Gotham is going to be very important in the upcoming issue with Superman and his League”.

“Shit”.

Montoya’s eyes were wide open now.

“That means Gotham is going to be a war zone...again”.

“You hit the nail right on the head unfortunately” Harleen says.

Bruce was unfettered by the odds, and instead they only served as an obstacle he wanted to overcome. “It is commissioner. But we intend to be ready when it comes”.

**_Kane Memorial Catholic School_ **

“Jason, a moment of your time if you can”.

The young man hadn’t expected to have the priest stop him, especially not with class being over as it was. He was just in the middle of packing up his book bag when Father Blood had come up behind him.

He casts a look at Barbara who shrugs and sits in her own chair, signalling that she would be staying if Jason so wanted her to. He shakes his head no, figuring that the animosity between the two, his favorite teacher and girlfriend, wasn’t a good recipe for him to experience at that moment.

“Umm...sure professor. Sure. Barbara...I’ll catch up to you in the cafeteria” he says, watching as the redhead slowly moves out of the room, casting a glare back at an unconcerned Jason Blood.

The man lets go of his shoulder and moves back to his desk, looking at Jason deeply as if he was studying him. “I’ve noticed that you have been distracted lately Jason. Is there something going on? Is everything alright at home”.

“No father. Everything is fine…”.

He hated lying, and he hated the fact that he wasn’t any good at it either. 

“Are you sure? Is it your girlfriend? I have to be honest Jason, I’m a little surprised. I thought you were quite sweet on Ms. Cobblepot”.

The fact that the priest had noticed was enough to make the young man blush and he shuffles on his feet uncomfortably. The elder Jason smiles and puts his hand up to calm him. “Alas, it’s probably none of my business. I just want you to be careful Jason. The way to heaven is slim but there are many paths to...well...you know”.

“Thank you father. I will” he says in response, not knowing what to make of it though he didn’t want to insult his favorite teacher by saying anything that might strike the man as back talk. 

_ “Pick up your sword knight! Do as thou has been commanded!” _

He shakes his head and places a hand on his temple, moaning slightly at the headache that the voice was causing. Ever since he’d laid eyes on the sword...he’d been...hearing it.

“Are you sure you’re okay Jason? Would you like to go to the nurse and perhaps get an aspirin?”.

“No, no. I’m...fine”.

He felt strange, as if he was being pulled somewhere, and he knew that if he followed the sensation he would wind up right back in the cave, before the sword which gleamed like pure sunlight. 

The priest didn’t move but his eyes lit up and he turns to a drawer at his desk. “Ohh, I’d almost forgotten. I have a little gift for you. Something you might like as you are quite the history buff”.

He pulls out what appears to be a book, and he slides it across the desk. The boy’s eyes are instantly drawn to it and the symbol on the front that is instantly recognizable as the same cross that was etched into the hilt of the sword. 

He reaches forward for the book and takes it in his hand, gasping at how old it was. “Father Blood...this...this is…”.

“A very old book yes” the man explains, gauging the boy’s reactions. “I thought you might like it. It’s actually from the twelfth century. It was written in English by a knight in the service of king Richard the first, also as you would know…”.

“Lionheart”.

“Ahh as usual you fail to disappoint with your knowledge my boy. Yes. It was written by a knight under his command who belonged to a sacred order. He managed to write it between the siege of Acre and the battle of Jaffa”.

Jason rubs his fingers over the cover and reads the title. 

“A history of the Order of St. Dumas”.

Jason continued to study the boy as he opened the book and started to read through it, his eyes glued to the pages. He can’t help but...hear….or imagine he was hearing the ring of battle. Swords against sword, cries of the wounded and horns blasting to sound the charges of thundering knights who rode their steeds across the sandy battlefields.

“Do you like it?”

He is snapped out of his day dreams by the other man’s voice and he closes the book quickly. “Yes sir. Thank you so much. I...I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve a gift like this”.

Blood just smiles softly and nods. “We do not always know the paths that God weaves for us Jason, nor do we know why he does so. All we know for certain is that we should follow him and do our best for his glory. Now...run along to lunch. I’d hate to think of the slanderous ideas your girlfriend has already conjured up about me in her mind” he says waving the boy off dismissively. 

Jason moves towards the door, turning to thank the man one last time before exiting into the hallway and closing the door behind him.

He continues to watch after the boy, not noticing how his shadow misshapes itself on the wall behind him. Slowly the dark mass grows horns and its eyes glow a deep red.

“You’ve set the boy on a path so great, as he’ll be consumed by his own just hate”.

Blood rolls his eyes and turns around to face the shadow. “Be silent. We know not what he is to do with his life, all we know is that we are to assist him in accomplishing his task and reaching his destiny”.

The demonic shadow just laughs, its chuckle a dark and ominous low rumbling that would set the man at unease if he wasn’t so used to it at this point. “His goodness will be his doom, as his destiny will bring him naught but gloom. This task you give him, he cannot complete, and he shall fall dead at our feet”.

Jason looks back to the desk and the papers he had still yet to work on grading. He retracts a pen from the holder and sets about his work, ignoring the beast which glares at his back. “You’re a pessimist. You’ll see”.

**_Ace Chemicals_ **

It was done. 

Finally done.    
  


All the barrels were filled and a near perfect elixir of fear had been created by the putrid mix of his own generic fear toxin and the chemicals used by the Joker to reform others in his own image. Twenty barrels had been made, alongside an effective means of distributing it.

His job was done, and all that was left was for him to tell the others.

That could wait though.

  
First? 

He wanted to marvel at the genius of his creation. He could imagine the screams already, and he could almost taste how they might feel against his lips were they a sweet nectar or ambrosia. Soon the city would be cleansed by a reckoning with their fears.

The strong, like him, would overcome them and rise to the top while the others? They would give in. The fear toxin would not only expose their deepest and darkest fears, it would make them their master. If the Joker toxin didn’t kill them first…

Jonathan Crane did not concern himself with that.

After all, he was a man of science, and he was well versed in the laws of evolution and natural selection. He’d be able to share his plans with the others and they would praise his ingenuity...or they would suffer.

_ “Creeper Crane! Creeper Crane! Creeper Crane!” _

He looks at the floor and smiles, licking his lips at the thought of what he was going to do to the one they called Black Canary when he found her.

“I wonder what her fear shall be” he ponders aloud, tapping a beaker to watch the green sludge move about. “Cockroaches, ghosts? Or is it a much more primal fear? Ohh Canary, what would you most fear losing in your life? I wonder this. Perhaps your beautiful yet deadly voice?”

He had already come to the conclusion that no matter way, Canary would not survive what he was referring to as the Last Samhain. He would slit her throat as soon as she was finished viewing his genius. 

“You wont be able to even scream my dear. I shall ensure that”. 

He reaches down to take the sinister looking sickle off of his belt, having sharpened it just that morning in preparation.

“Ohh yes. Nobody will hear you scream. Except me”.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to apologize if this chapter isn't all that great. I don't know what it is but I just have a feeling it isn't too good. I've been just really down lately and I don't know if you guys are enjoying this story as much as the first part of it. Maybe I'm too critical, I don't really know. Anyways, I'm wishing all of you a very happy new year. Thank God 2020 is over. Here's to a great 2021 where hopefully I can finish the remaining one and a half parts of this story and I can do some other projects, finish up what I have and do some new stuff.

**_GCPD, Right Before A Press Conference_ **

Renee felt queasy, and she didn’t know why. She’d face down reporters numerous times and answered a lot harder questions than what she’d most likely be asked this time around. Half of it was common knowledge at this point anyways.

Still...telling the truth? Especially one that would get her a lot of backlash?

She wasn’t looking forward to it.

“Be brave”.

She feels the comforting hands on her shoulders, and the cheek pressed against hers as Tatsu leans over the woman who was hunched at her desk. Renee instantly straightens out and reaches back to rub at the Japanese woman’s cheek.

“It’s easy to say that when you’re a badass samurai chick you know?”

Tatsu smiles and closes her eyes, allowing her to focus on Renee’s unique scent that she enjoyed so much. “You have no realization of how much of my strength comes from you”.

“Come on Tatsu…”.

“No...you know what happened to my family” the woman says, shuttering slightly at the memory. 

_ “Tatsu run daughter!” _

_ Okasan! Otasan!” _

She shakes the thoughts and the voices they bring back with them away, wanting to focus on her lover at that moment. “When I lost my parents to the Yakuza, I hardened my hato, my heart. I threw myself into the study of bushido, and took up my grandfather’s sword. My life, until I met you, was one long quest for vengeance, not honor”.

She swivels Renee around in the chair and climbs into her lap, tucking her legs neatly on either side of the woman’s while taking her face in her hands to stare deeply into her eyes. Montoya reacts my staring back and placing her own hands on Tatsu’s cheeks. Slowly, Tatsu smiles and places her forehead against the commissioner’s.

“Loving you...it freed me. My seishin walks freely and lightly because of you. I am no longer interested in vengeance, the childish desires which guided my youth. No. I seek justice. True justice. You melted the ice that encased my heart Renee, and I will always love you for that…”.

Their lips press eagerly against one another, and Renee’s hands move slowly down to the woman’s lithe waist to assist in crushing her body to her own. “Anata wa watashi no chikaredesu”.

“I don’t know what that means” Renee says, leaning in to suckle at the woman’s pulse point, gently tracing over it with her tongue. Katana moans and presses on the back of the woman’s head with her hand to urge her on. “It means...ohhh...hai...hai, right there. It means you are my strength”.

  
Renee hears those words and gently draws back, looking over her girlfriend and enjoying for a moment how Tatsu looked in a pantsuit. She wore it while she was at the GCPD as the commissioner’s “aide”. Renee had never had the heart to tell her that there was no such position, and...she liked what they could get up to after hours. 

Now was not the time to think over the naughty aspects of their relationship but rather...what it could be. 

“Tatsu...I’ve never broached the subject but...how would you feel about getting married?”

The atmosphere turns silent and for a moment all emotion falls away from the other woman’s face. For Renee? The tension had gotten so thick that it could be cut with a knife, or even Katana’s...well, Katana.

The smile spreads softly and slowly at first until encompassing all of Tatsu’s face. “I’ve dreamt often of it though, I decided to wait patiently. You are...how do you say...the big spoon?”

Renee was confused by what she meant, though her heart was beating rapidly at the woman’s words. ‘She’s dreamt of it!’.

  
“What...what does cuddling have to do with you waiting to talk to me about it?”

Now it was Tatsu’s job to be confused, and as she laid her palms down on Renee’s shoulder she couldn’t help but blush. “Ohh...I always feel oroka when talking of these things. When we go to sleep. You are the one who holds me. Does that not make you the “man” of our relationship?”

She was just too cute when she was embarrassed and blushing, and Renee couldn’t help but chuckle. The act only further embarrassed Tatsu, who certainly didn’t like to be laughed at. Renee was quick though, and she pulls the woman closer to kiss her again.

“Sweetie...no, no...I wasn’t laughing at you...you’re just too cute. I guess I am the “man” she says, using the air quotation marks as well, “in our relationship. So, you’re right. It’s up to me to make the first move”.

“Well, you’ve given up the element of surprise. Now I know you’re going to do it” Tatsu pouts.

Renee leans forward and nuzzles her nose against the samurai’s smiling wide. “Oops. I guess I’m being the dumb, obtuse man” she teases before turning serious. “I’m going to ask you on a special night. That’ll be our official engagement but...right now, just so I know...I’d like to know if you’d make me the luckiest woman in the world and marry me Tatsu”.

“Hai”.

Without anymore words she leans forward and kisses Renee, lingering close as she pours out all of her affections onto the woman’s lips. When they separate, they remain close, and Renee had forgotten the entire reason for her nervousness.

“Tatsu Montoya. Hai, yes that sounds nice”.

Just then the phone rings, and Renee looks at Tatsu as if suggesting for her to get off of her. The Japanese woman just settles in more and lays her head on the woman’s shoulder. “Ohh..si. That’s how you want to play it?”

Tatsu just nods serenely, closing her eyes and remaining cuddled up atop the woman. “Maldita sea”. The phone keeps ringing and Renee slowly pushes the chair back closer to the desk and reaches out blindly for it, bringing the receiver to her ear.

“Hello? Yes this is commissioner Montoya. Ohh, Mayor Dent...si, how can I help...ohh, our mutual friends...right”.

Tatsu smirks up at her from her position and decides to be a little naughtier with her fiancee, promising her so much more following this press conference. She kisses along her jawline and gently suckles the woman’s earlobe.

“Ohhh...oh, um sorry Commissioner. Yes just, a little queasy. Worried about...well, telling the city about our...mutual friends”.

‘Tatsu you are getting a spanking when we get home you chica mala’.

**_The New Headquarters of Lexcorp_ **

“Achooo!”

The force of his sneeze was more violent than he had intended, and it almost caused him to fall out of his chair. “Lex! Jeez, how long were you underground baby?”

Mercy was quick to rush up to him, a blanket already in her hands. “Mercy I’m…”. The woman ignores him as she works on tucking the blanket around him. “Fine”.

She places the back of her hand against his forehead, doing a quick check of his temperature. “Why do you feel like you’re burning up then?” she reproaches him gently.

He looks away, unable to take her gaze.

“You’ve been pushing yourself too hard Lex”.

“Mercy, this city….it needs to be protected” he sighs, his voice taking on a distinctively nasally quality. “And right now it’s really only me and Bruce doing any of the legwork, and even then mostly me”.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that”.

The two turn, already in a state of alertness that had been ingrained into both of them by their life circumstances, to the window, where a dark shape had already somehow undone the lock and slid open the door before stepping inside.

Both relax as they realize who it is, though never had met him face to face before. “Ahh, surprised it took you this long to show up” Lex says, making to stand before he’s stopped by Mercy’s hands. “Eh, you stay. Batman can talk to you from here mister big business man” she says before turning to look at the famed vigilante.

“Sorry, Lex is sick. So you’re going to have to accommodate him a little tonight. Lex, I’ll be right back with some warmed up soup. Alright?”

Without waiting for the man to respond in the affirmative or negative, Mercy moves off, leaving a flabbergasted Lex.

The bald man turns and sighs, moving up and throwing the blanket back onto his chair. “I’m fine you know?” he begins. “I’ve just been spending a lot of time underground. It’s very moist down there. Moldy. Who knows? Just a cold and she acts like it’s the end of the world”.

Bruce watches the man slowly pace though he catches the glance and smile that are thrown back at the door where Mercy had left through. 

“I know the feeling”.

Lex turns on the Batman and nods. “I’m sure you do. Let me guess...Batwoman? Or would it be….Harleen Wayne”.

Bruce is stock still, unmoving as the bald man takes his silence for an answer. “Figured as much”. Lex moves towards the window to look out over Gotham, a contented smile on his face. Bruce turns to face the man’s back. “How did you know?”

“It all makes sense really”.

“I mean, you have the motive and means, but nobody else buys it because of your public persona. I mean, vapid Bruce Wayne as the Batman?” Lex asks, appearing to be himself scandalized by the thought. He coughs and sneezes again, reaching onto his desk for a tissue. “But nobody”, he says before stopping to blow his nose and then deposit the used tissue into the trash bin. “Would really put it together unless they accessed the financial records of Wayne Enterprises and cross referenced them with Bruce Wayne himself. That alone wouldn’t bring up much” the man admits. “After all, you put lots of your own money into your company anyway”.

He splays his arms out wide. “I do it myself. Why trust the stockholders to cough up the dough when they’d never be able to understand your vision anyways?”.

Bruce remains silent, waiting for the hammer to drop and for Luthor to reveal whatever plan he had in the works.

“But as I said, you have to look closer. Lucius Fox specifically. He spends a lot of money on certain...equipment. And usually right after a large deposit from the personal accounts of Bruce Wayne…”.

“What do you want Luthor?”

Lex seemed scandalized by the thought though he turns back to the door and smiles. “At the moment? That bowl of soup and Mercy, naked on my bed. But that’s not what you’re asking is it? No, you’re really asking what I intend to do with the information I have?”

Bruce just glares.

“Nothing. It was just fun and easy to figure out, well for me. Your secret is safe Bruce” he says dismissively. “In fact..ohh” he says while sitting down. “It makes our cooperation a little bit easier. We don’t have to waste time and pretend to have whatever needs to be said go through all these different channels to get our work done”.

“Hmmm…”.

“So..is this little meeting of ours...over?”

“No. It isn’t. Since I’m here...what are you planning on doing with the outer defenses of the city? You haven’t started on the wall”.

Lex just smiles and shrugs. 

“Actually...it’s already in place”.

He reaches onto his desks and slides a pile of schematics over to the vigilante who picks them up to go through them. “You see, there’s a reason for all of the hydraulic lifts I’ve been moving down there. It wouldn’t make sense to build a wall where it can be seen...so...I built one that will pop up when we need it. Ingenious huh?”

Bruce didn’t want to admit to it, but he did in fact find it quite ingenious. As he went through the papers though, he kept seeing reference to an Operation Levy. “What is this?”

“My plan to get us an army” Lex explains. Inside of the folder were numerous pictures and dossiers related to those being photographed. Newspaper clippings and all sorts of other pieces of evidence in relation to them. Louise Lincoln, Floyd Lawton, Barbara Ann Minerva...the names went on and on.

“You see, we’re not the only ones who don’t like Superman. In fact, many others absolutely refuse to bow before tyranny”.

Batman throws the files back onto the table. “These aren’t freedom fighters. Most of them are criminals”.

“True” Lex sniffles. “But I’m not the only one making deals with the less upright members of our community”.

The accusation in his voice was dead on, and it was clear that he also knew of Bruce’s deal with Oswald. Batman returns the look determinedly, knowing he would hear the man out. “In return for their cooperation, I’m offering them presidential pardons, courtesy of our soon to be president Harvey Dent. Also, a good number of them? They’re heroes of their own accord or rather, were until Superman and his goons showed up and dismantled all non-League organizations”.

Bruce continues on and sees the faces of some of the men and women who had apparently, if Luthor’s mark were to be believed, had acquiesced to joining what Lex Luthor had titled, “The Justice Society of Gotham”.

“Tora Olafsdottir. Born in Narvik, Norway. Former member of the Global Guardians alongside her best friend, Beatriz Da Costa. Fire, as she is called, has joined the league and...well, Princess Olafsdottir has not”.

Bruce looks down at the white haired woman with a smile on her face, and reads over her psychological profile and description of powers.

“She’ll come in handy. Next is Katar Hol. Thanagarian soldier. Apparently, he and his wife Shayera were sent here on a peace mission. The former Mrs. Hol apparently disregarded that and decided that going to war with Denmark on Superman’s behalf was more in line with her philosophy”.

“Mari McCabe, Vixen. Socialite and supermodel with the powers of the African Savannah at her disposal. Garfield Logan, Beast Boy, green kid with the same kind of schtick except he can turn into any animal he wants. He’s bringing a girl named Bombshell, apparently his girlfriend, who has the power of atomic energy”.

Bruce sees the list of heroes willing to fight the league, though it was pitifully small when compared to the list of heroes that the League had managed to scrounge up.

“Where are they?”

“Mostly in Gotham”.

“You brought them here without me knowing?” Bruce asks, not liking the idea of having rogue heroes he’d never met, some of them not even heroes, running about his city.

“Most of them are in danger of execution at this point Bruce” Lex defends himself. “I didn’t see any other option. After watching what happened to Red Tornado and The Huntsman in Germany? I didn’t see any way of keeping them alive over there”.

  
“Hmm”.

Bruce was still concentrating on the files before him and a certain name catches his eye. “Who is this?”

“Ohh, that? That’s John Constantine” Lex says with a long suffering sigh. “He’s out counter measure to Zatanna Zatara and Dr. Fate. He’s...well, I’m not going to sugar coat it. He’s an asshole but right now? He’s our asshole, and one of the only major magic users who’ve been willing to defect to us” Lex explains. “He’s my...secret weapon I’ve spoken about before. You see, Superman’s other weakness is magic. That’s why he has such a drive to either kill everyone or put them on the payroll if they have magical abilities”.

“I don’t like you making moves without me knowing about it Luthor” Bruce says, suddenly fully understanding why Harvey had been so angry with him.

“I didn’t…”.

“Save it. I understand”.

The two descend into silence, and neither says a word as the weight of how everything was shaping up settles upon them.

“When will it all be ready?”

“Three months” Lex says. “Give or take”.

“Do we have enough time?”

Lex nods and turns to his computer. “Russia and the East are proving...difficult for Superman to subdue. Last I heard they’d all but reformed the Soviet Union to combat him and the League. They’re doing...adequate, but they wont hold forever. Especially since Wonder Woman’s amazons have been brought into the fray”.

“They really are keeping this quiet back here”.

Lex nods. “Makes you never want to trust the news again hmm? Well, except for Vicki Vale. Gotham has become the last stand for a lot of things recently hasn’t it? Including journalistic integrity”.

Bruce doesn’t answer him, preferring to remain on topic. “Is there anything else that’s pressing?”

“No” Lex says, looking down just as Mercy enters the room again with a tray of soup in her hands. “Nothing I can’t…”.

“Lex, back under the covers...where’d Batman go?”

Lex turns to see that Batman had disappeared, though he’d left the door to the balcony open. “I..I guess he left”.

Mercy justs “tsks” the herself and moves to the desk to place the tray down while walking to the window to close it. Lex was taking the opportunity to check out her butt and legs, loving how she looked in the tight yoga pants she normally wore to bed. “Hey Mercy...just...stay there for a moment”.

“Huh?” she asks, turning her head over her shoulder and realizing what the man was doing. She blushes a bright red. “Pervert”.

Lex sneezes again and moans, his nose red and runny while he wipes it off with another tissue. “I can’t help but notice that you didn’t move”.

**_Iceberg Lounge_ **

It was over. 

All of it.

The gang wars, the hiding, the senseless violence. With Mandragora gone and Black Mask with him, he and his daughter were safe. Money had started to pour in. After all, everyone knew who was the new boss.

He pulls on his tie, loosening it a bit to let himself breath.

“Well, I went and did it Maggie” he says to the picture of his wife. Good naturedly he smiles. “And you always said I’d never amount ta nothin”.

He leans in and kisses her, subconsciously wanting her to know, even if she couldn’t see, that he was joking with her. “Our little girl is safe now. This life? It ain’t gonna interfere with hers no more. Already feel like it’s taken too much out of here”.

She doesn’t answer, but her smile is enough for him. “I wish I knew you were proud of me but I know you’re proud of her. Helped me write up all our accounts she did. Even made sense of that fat piece of shit Mandragora’s network. Cracked the code in a matter a’ minutes. Smart little lass we made”.

He stands up and moves towards his whiskey, thinking about pouring himself a glass before deciding against it. The past few days had been going so well that he knew he didn’t need one.

“Ahh...Margaret. I’ve teamed up with Batman. I know you don’t know who that is, after your time and all, but if you find the time to watch us like the telly or somethin’, you’d know that this means I’m not really a criminal anymore”.

He looks into the mirror and smiles. “I’m a good guy. Heh. Keeping all the real scum offa the streets. Ever woulda’ imagined that love? Me, a Robin Hood”.

Another thought weighs heavily on his mind, and he tries to push it down. The Batman’s words settle on his very soul. Without thinking much on it, for he knew that if he did he wouldn’t be able to go through with it, he advances to the phone and dials the number he had been dreading having to call.

“This betta not be a dumb fookin’ idea Bats or I’ll ram me umbrella right up your…”.

He stops as the phone begins to ring, though it was clear that nobody was picking up. ‘Eh, shouldn’t have called so late’.

The answering machine triggers, and to his surprise it isn’t just a general robot voice that greets him. Instead, two cute, nearly identical voices, ring out.

“Hello! I’m Martha Wayne!”.

“And I’m Mary Wayne!”

He couldn’t help but smile at their young and chipper voices, having known that Bruce Wayne had children but not having expected them to be front and center like this. “We’re sorry but we’re all out! Which is funny because a bajillion people live here!”

The little girls giggle at their joke, though the message continues on. “If you call back….”.

“Girls? Sweeties, what are you doing...are you programming the answering machine?”

“Hehehe”.

“Pfft, alright, alright, let’s see if I can fix whatever it is you two goofballs did”.

The sound of the phone dropping and then being picked up again reaching Oswald’s ear. “The price we pay for love” he says, probably not aware of the fact that the phone was still recording. “Alright, how do we fix thi…BEEP!”

Oswald didn’t know what to say. Here he was, confronted by the fact that the man he hated simply because of his last name and what his family had done to his decades ago….was a father. Just like him. One that obviously dearly loved his children. He could hear it in his voice.

He could relate.

“Uhh, hello, this is Oswald Cobblepot” he begins, knowing that he had to say something. “I...I don’t really know why I called. I just know that...well, your family and mine, we have some history”.

He reaches up and rubs the bridge of his nose and shakes his head at how that sounded. “Well, no I...I don’t mean it like, well, how that obviously sounded. I...I guess I just want to talk. Closure on things I suppose. You’re under no obligation to call me back or anything but...if you do...I’d very much enjoy hearing from you. Have a good night and if not, no hard feelings about it...eh...you know. Life works out different for people all the time”.

With that he hangs up, not at all content with the message he’d left.

Still, it would have to do.

**_Wayne Manor_ **

He gingerly leans down over the bed and places a kiss on Martha’s forehead before pulling the covers back over the sleeping little girl. “I love you Martha”.

He quickly moves over to the opposite side of the room and the opposite bed to repeat the action upon Mary, who doesn’t even stir as he picks up her teddy bear and replaces it in her arms. The little girl murrs and squeezes it tightly, causing Bruce to smile even wider.

This was exactly what he needed after going out on patrol and speaking to Luthor.

“I love you Mary”.

He reaches down and runs his fingers through the girl’s red locks, moving off as he realizes that she was slowly beginning to wake. 

He is an expert at moving silently, and at this point, his daughter’s messy room with their toys scattered about the floor was barely a challenge to Bruce Wayne. In the early days though...well, that was a different story.

As he closes the door to his younger daughter’s room, he reflects on checking in on Barbara again though...he saw the sock on the door. He didn’t know what to really feel about that. On one hand? His daughter was having sex with a boy. On the other? That boy had been her best friend since her world collapsed around her and was a son to him as well.

He couldn’t sort it out, so..he wouldn’t. For now.

Instead he yawns, more than tired as undoubtedly most everyone left in the manor was. Vic and Dinah would be finishing up their patrol any time now, while Harleen was already in bed. He trudges down the hall and quietly opens the door, not wanting to wake her.

He drops his pants and takes off his shirt, knowing he’d receive a stern talking too from Elise in the morning for doing so. But right now? He was too tired, and the feminine shape lying in the bed looked invitingly warm.

He lifts the covers and moves in next to her, an arm going about her waist to pull him into his chest. “Mmm...back puddin?”

“Yeah. Didn’t realize you were awake” he says, inhaling her scent and enjoying it deeply. She was freshly showered, just like him. “Anything wrong?”

“Yeah” she admits. “I’m nervous about the Arkham thing tomorrow. It’s never easy telling the press that a patient was burned to death along with half of the ward. We couldn’t even get an accurate I.D”.

“Are you sure it’s Crane?”

  
“Eighty percent sure. Waiting for the test results to come back. The asbestos in that room was so hot Bruce, it barely left anything real”.

“Hmmm”.

Harley bites her lip and smiles to herself, a dastardly thought coming into her mind. “You know...it’s been a while since we did the nasty”.

She presses her perfectly formed rear end into Bruce’s groin, which seems to instantly spark a reaction from her husband. “Harley…” he moans out. “I’m exhausted”.

She feels his hardened member underneath his boxers though, and she decides to press her luck and increase the pressure she puts on him. “Are you suuuure? I mean, you see this nightie right? It wouldn’t take much to get me out of it. In fact, if you just…”.

He abruptly sits up, in bed and turns her over, a little roughly. When she looks back up at him she knows that she pressed all the right buttons she had wanted to for the night. “Uhh ohh..now I did it”.

He reaches up and pins her by the wrists to the bed while looking down at her, seemingly eyeing the rise and fall of her ample cleavage through the indeed very thin nightie. He rolls his eyes and smiles, knowing he was going to cave anyways. 

He captures her lips with his own, letting her experience the conquest she had been longing for for a while now. Ever since her recovery, Bruce had walked on eggshells with her, at least in a physical sense. She was glad that was passed.

“Hmmm...that’s it puddin’. Rev up your Harley” she teases out as he licks along her throat. “You have no idea what you do to me” he whispers against the blondes ear before move down to the valley of her chest. He releases her hands, which quickly go to his back to urge him on in his ministrations upon her chest.

‘They were sore during it, but man am I glad my girls didn’t shrink after breast feeding’.

Bruce reaches up to her shoulders and pulls the straps down to expose her bare breasts to the cold night air as rapidly as possible. She loved the feral look in his eyes, and it made her coo submissively in the hopes of spurring him further onwards.

Her nipples, pink and already erect, were his first target, and he attaches his mouth to her right teat eagerly while his other hand moves to cup her opposite breast. He suckles as much of her breast into his mouth as possible, using his tongue in such a tantalizing way to circle her flesh and flick at her nipple. His groping was also quite pleasurable for her. 

She throws her head back on the pillow and moans, fighting the urge to start playing with herself already. ‘Ohhh such big strong hands you have Mr. Bat!’ she thinks, joking with herself in her mind to try and keep from losing her sanity. ‘All the better to make you cum Mrs. Bat’.

Bruce meanwhile, was using his free hand to slip out of his boxers, throwing them off of the bed and onto the pile of clothes next to the bed. He was already throbbing, and he knew he wouldn’t last very long. 

Their abstainment from sex had obviously done a number on both of them and neither had known it.

Until they were alone with one another.

Bruce pulls away, letting Harley see his engorged member which seemed to throb in anticipation as he kneeled on the bed and forcibly pulled her nightie down the rest of the way. She assisted him as best as she could, throwing her legs up in the air for him to pull the fabric away and toss it into the darkness. 

He keeps her legs up by wrapping his hand around her ankles, exposing her to him in a way that she found so naturally naughty. He was able to lift her with one hand while the other goes out to inspect her womanhood.

One touch exposes what he already primally knew, and he knew exactly what to do now.

He lets her go and reaches forward to grasp her by the waist, growling out “on your stomach”.

She shivered and moaned aloud as he ordered her around in his vigilante voice, not even waiting for her to comply by herself as he just picks her up and puts her on her belly. She spreads her legs outwards and begins to shake her butt this way and that, teasing him and taunting him.

“Already soaking wet aren’t you Harley?”

She bites her lip and nods, feeling him move into position behind her on the bed. She loved it when he got rough because Bruce’s version of rough was...different. There was no name calling or humiliation. It was very flattering as a matter of fact, even when it got dirty.

Bruce grasps her waist to steady himself, though he took a bit of time to grasp his cock and slap it down on her ass cheeks a few times, even opting to slide it in between them to make a lewd version of a hot dog.

When he pulls back he repeats the teasing motion on her womanly entrance, using her own excitement to lube himself up. He was considerate, even now. She knew that the fun part was about to begin though, and she prepares herself for it and even pushes herself back. 

His head was wetly sucked into her with ease, though that was as far as it would get without force, a force Bruce was all too willing to provide. He reaches forward and places his grip on her shoulders, arching her back in a way that drove the monkey part of Bruce’s brain wild with desire. 

He slams himself forward into her, sheathing his member deep inside of her velvety love tunnel which puts up minimal resistance at his thrust until his head is buried in her womb practically. She wants to squeal in delight and pleasure, though she muffles it by biting the pillow. This only drives Bruce on even more as he wants to hear her moans.

He begins to pull out of her, though her body was unwilling to let it be as easy to get out as it was for him to get in. Her muzzles squeeze him, almost as if they were begging his cock to stay where it was warm and cozy. Bruce wasn’t having it though. For tonight? He was calling the shots.

As his prick almost falls out of her, he reaches forward and grasps both of her arms to pin them behind her back while also bringing her up a bit. He’s able to grip her by the wrists and keep her there, supporting her with his upper body strength. 

This new position also gave him leverage to have a solid basis for pumping in and out of the woman, and this was an advantage he wouldn’t waste.

He thrusts back into her harshly, enjoying how her juices were becoming much more prevalent and some seemed to squirt out onto the sheets, driven by the force of his thrust. “This what you wanted Harley?” he asks, growling as he drives his cock in and out of her.

“Do you like teasing me so much? You should’ve...unnng...known this would happen”.

He reaches out and slaps her ass firmly, but not too hard. All he wanted was to see how her rear end would jiggle and bounce from the impact of his hand. Harley moans in response though it was much less muffled due to her being away from the pillow. 

He releases her hands and firmly grasps her hips, angling so that his cock would enter her at different angles, changing up the pleasure’s focal point as he went. “Yesssss...Bruce...baby….”.

He loved the primal lust he heard in her voice, and the sound of his name of her lips makes his cock twitch. 

Harley was equally embarrassed as their time spent “off” of physical intimacy to this degree was showing with her as well. She was nearly on the precipice of her orgasm, and she reaches up to tease her clitoris with her fingers, eagerly working on rubbing the nub as Bruce spears into her. His balls slapped up against her, showing her by just the touch how full they were.

“Ohh Bruce...baby! Fuck mmmeeee!” she moans out, getting closer and closer to that orgasmic moment. Bruce was lost in the sensations as well, focused only on driving into the writhing blonde beneath him. 

He spreads her ass cheeks for a moment, more of an accidental thing as he had been groping them and slipped, but...for a brief moment he sees her puckered pink hole. His eyes fixate on it for some reason, and he can’t stop looking, even as he drives into her quivering womanhood which was just barely holding on.

Without thinking, he slides his fingers along her crack, and with even less thought, he presses his thumb into her butt.

The reaction for both of them is instantaneous as Harley goes stiff as a board at first before collapsing as her juices rapidly leak from her womanly entrance, her mouth transfixed in a silent scream of pleasure as she cums, violently. 

Bruce however, felt the contraction of her walls much more keenly, and instinctively pulls out of her. As he moves closer and closer to exiting her entirely, her spasming body and velvety walls refuse to let him go, though he forces his way out. Just in time time too.

Just as his cock bobs free, his own orgasm commences, and he spills his seed out over Harley’s pert ass cheeks, coating them in the evidence of his love before a second and third burst add themselves to her lower and upper back.

The violence of his orgasm, and the speed with which it was accomplished, he could only attribute to how heavenly Harley’s body felt. As he falls back onto his knees, dizzy from the exertion, he is unable to stop himself from falling over the side of the bed, tumbling onto the ground.

“Puddin” Harley calls out worriedly, trying to move but still shivering too much to react quickly. “Owww…” she hears from the floor as she collapses flat on her belly, panting and sweating. “Sweetie...I...I can’t move right now but are you okay?”

Bruce slowly reaches up to the side of the bed and begins to pull himself upward, getting a glance at Harely’s silhouette as she turns her head to look at him. He shakes his head a few times and blinks, taking deep breaths. “Wow...Harley...I...I almost felt like you were going to rip if off”. He notices the mess he’d left on her back, and silently reaches for the shirt on the floor to wipe her off.

She feels his gentle touch wiping her clean, or as clean as she could be without a shower. It had been a long time since she’d taken Bruce outside of her and she’d almost forgotten how...voluminous it could be.    
  
When the remnants of his semen is off of her, the man crawls into bed beside of the woman and uses his very last reservoir of his strength to curl her into his body again. “Now...don’t...don’t tease me again”.

“Ohh puddin’...I couldn’t if I tried” she says while stroking his arm with a smile. “I’m just glad I can still be sexy for you”.

“Harley...even when you’re wearing sweatpants and your hair is in a bun, you’re sexy to me” he says. She turns her head and pecks his lips before cuddling into him even more. “Puddin, are you psychoanalyzing me? Because you always know exactly what to say to me”.

“Six years of marriage tends to do that to a man”.

“Ohh? Is that how you knew that sticking a finger in my butt right then as you’re giving me the ole’ bat salami would give me the best and biggest orgasm of my life?” she asks with an arched eyebrow. 

He shrugs. “That was just a lucky guess”.

“I guess we can add pioneer to your list of titles baby” she coos. “You boldly go where no man has ever gone before”.

“Ha ha”.

She turns to stare into his eyes, caressing his face as she leans in to pepper it with kisses. “And where no other man will ever go” she adds. Bruce takes her hand and kisses it. “With you is the only place I want to be Harleen Wayne”.

The blond smiles brightly. “My puddin. Goes from putting a finger in my butt and fucking me like a cavemane to saying the most romantic things ever and reminding me why I’m so lucky to be his”.

He leans closer with a smile and captures her lips once more. “You’ll always be mine Harley, but...I think it’s me that’s lucky”.

**_Ace Chemicals_ **

Joker could barely contain his laughter, while Jester? Jester was just smirking. The Dee Dees stood by their respective object of affections, trying to turn their attentions away from the speaking man but failing miserably. 

Scarecrow just stood to the side, arms crossed over his chest as he fights to stay awake.

Blackfire took notice of none of this, and neither did his flock which was so enraptured by his words.

“My children. My gentle, faithful children” he begins, raising his staff with one hand while the other was one James jr.’s shoulder. “We have come so far, and yet, you never grumbled. Never doubted, at least, those of you who are still with us” the man says while looking down. “Yes, we’ve taken losses. Our numbers dwindled. But think of it as a test, to cut the wheat from the chaff. The true believers who died, await us in heaven!”

At the mention of the martyrs they all bow their heads, offering their supplications to God and gesturing towards James. “Have mercy on our fallen” they whisper, praying to him.

James was disinterested, as he always was. Multiple people who had lost family or friends had come to him, begging for condolences or positive words that they were indeed in heaven. He usually told them to go away, despite the protests of his mother who urged him to be kinder to them.

Still, he got his way and the words of Blackfire were the first time in years in some of their cases that they had any assurances of the salvation of their brethren.

‘It’s not my problem’.

Blackfire continues, unaware of the selfish thoughts of his savior. “We have been prepared for our war with the infidels. God hath sent us two of the demon’s army to give us the weapons we need to fight them!” he shouts in ecstasy. “Tomorrow, we bring the heavens to Gotham, but they do not come from above. No”. 

He shakes his head as if to emphasize his point. 

“They come from below! From the rotten refuse that this city threw out! Abandoned! Despised! Do you not remember how you were treated by this so called civilized world above?”

Hisses and boos, screams and shouts emanate all along the room, and Scarecrow can’t help but feel that he agrees a bit. After all, was he not an outcast in this world above as well? Despised and hated for the circumstances of my birth.

‘Mother...I didn’t want to kill you’.

He begins to shake at the memory of the beatings he’d endured at the hands of his father, and the words that were hurled at him.

_ “First thing you did in this world was kill your mother. Think on that”. _

“I’m sorry mother. I’m sorry”.    
  
“Hey, you okay? You don’t look so good pal” Joker asks, reaching out to the man in faux friendship. Crane just throws the man’s hand off of him, refusing to allow any of them close.

‘No, I’m different. I’m different. They do this for different reasons. Different reasons. Different reasons. Differen…’.

Joker smiles at the quickening mental breakdown that was happening right before his very eyes. Still, he says no more, knowing that it was best to keep a lid on this pot for a little while. ‘Wait until the very best time to let it blow and when it does? KABLOOOOEY!!’.

He chuckles again, imagining all the mayhem that a positively unhinged Crane could unleash on the population at large.

“Tomorrow, the Wayne family and the line descended from Cain ends!” he shouts. “Not only shall James jr fell the serpent, but our other warriors will descend upon their own targets, preserving a place in heaven honored amongst the saints!” 

He sweeps his hand out to Jester. “Our youngest friend shall go to where the youngest of the Wayne’s rest their heads, the little vipers...and he shall crush them beneath his boot! His father, Joker, shall go to Arkham where the father and mother shall hear the news of their dead little ones, assured that their evil will not survive their grave!”

He pauses and grips the rails tightly, practically snarling in rage. “The rest of us? We will lead an assault on the gates of hell itself. Wayne Tower, that tower of Babel now thrice built, shall fall to the ground, not to rise a fourth!” 

The crowd was in an orgy of bloodlust, and they pointed their rifles into the air, eager to begin. “When it falls...it shall open up the pathway to hell, that shall bring all of those who did evil upon into it’s gaping maw. The rest of Gotham shall be ours…”

He extends his hand and looks at it, closing the fingers around a nonexistent sphere. “Like...the fruit denied to Adam and Eve within the garden. We shall taste of all knowledge and we shall know peace…”.

He ignores the shouts that could no longer be rallied or curtailed by his words, and instead simply turns to Barbara to stroke her cheek. The redhead coos against him, holding James tight to her waist. “We shall have Eden my love”.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to apologize for not getting a chapter out last night guys. I tried but really just couldn't focus. Happy New Years to all of you!

**_Vinland 874, A.D. Modern Day Gotham_ **

The year had been cold, that was certain. The small settlement of Wainsthorpe was growing, or at least as much as it could in this new world. Children had been born and outbuildings now dotted the landscape around the Jarl’s longhouse.

Life was good for Jarl Leorblak Wainson and his wife Harleigha.

Even now they feasted with their clan, enjoying the taste of mead upon their lips, the warmth from the hearth and the company of loved ones.

“Would you like some of my honeyed bread husband?”

Leorblak turns in his throne and smiles at his wife who indeed held before her a plate with her famed delicacy. “Hmm…”. He simply takes the bread, two pieces and hands the tray off to a thrall who moves it back within the confines of the other revelers. “No” he says, grasping her with his ferocious strength and his free arm and bringing the giggling blonde into his lap.

She faux resists him, lightly batting his chest with her hand. “Leorblak!”

“What?”

He silences her protests by placing one of the buns in the woman’s mouth, gently tasting his own. He casts his hand out over the assembled people and smirks. “They know my great love for you”.

Harleigha blushes and cuddles into the man despite her better judgement. She’d never expected someone such as Leoblak to be so open, so giving when it came to his affections. It was yet another thing that separated him from other men, and another reason that people naturally wanted to follow him.

“Do you think Sir Jason is okay?”

The man nods to her concern, indeed feeling that his friend was more than okay. “He returned to England to offer an invitation” he says, loudly so that all the others could hear, and indeed the whole hall seems to stop for a moment, hanging on every one of their Jarl’s words.

“To all free men and women, who’d join us in these wild lands” he booms out. “Where we are free to live, love, fight and die for what is rightfully ours. Where we may build a land built upon the idea of justice and fairness. Away from the vapid pillaging of our youth, where the gods of mercy and wisdom may guide us instead. You...you have made that possible”.

While the words he spoke were meant for all those assembled in the hall, it was clear that they were truly meant for Harleigha as he turns her and smiles. 

“Skal to our Jarl!”

“Skal!”

The entire room bursts out into a cheer, praising their jarl when suddenly, the door bursts open and a man enters, not even taking the time to brush off the snow that littered the cloak he wore. “My Jarl! Sigurd Loki Born...urrrk!”.

Before the man’s words were out, the shaft of an arrow protruded through his neck, shocking all those around him. Leorblak is on his feet as the man falls, first to his knees then flat against the floor. “Men! Too arms!”.

The group begins to arm itself, and Leorblak turns to face the threat, reaching for the sword he kept beside his throne. “Harleigha, you get the women and babes to safety”.

There was fire in her eyes, and she makes to resist. 

“Nil, I come with…”.

He turns and grasps her face, kissing her deeply and using precious seconds as the sound of warriors enclosing from outside of the longhouse and the screams of dying men could be heard. “Harleigha...listen to me. I beg of you”.

She knew when her battle was over, Leorblak’s taking necessity for the moment, and she gives him a nod. With that out of the way, the man rushes through the front door, joined by his other warriors, though something made him feel that this was already folly. Men fell beside him as arrows plunged from archers hidden in the darkness, and buried themselves in their flesh. 

Leorblak was just able to duck and roll forward, bringing his axe up only to bring it back down on the head of one of their attackers who had been quite busy menacing a woman on the ground. As his body falls, Leorblak looks towards the woman and gestures with his chin for her to run, something she eagerly does. 

He looks around at Wainsthorpe and feels his heart filled with a chill that could only have come from Jotunheim.

It was on fire.

All of the outbuildings were well on their way to being nothing but ash as the flames that had overtaken them were the cruelest and largest he’d ever seen. ‘All we’ve worked for…’.

“Ahhh!” 

He falls to the ground and grasps at the source of his pain, finding an arrow wedged into his side. He pulls it out, realizing only too late that that was the worst thing he could’ve done at that moment. The blood begins to seep from his wound, weakening him, but not killing him.

“Aieeieeee!’

It was a inability to tell a difference between the two that would cost this young Miagani brave his life.

Just as he’s about to bring his tomahawk down on the kneeling man’s back, Leorblak turns with a ferocious strength and cleaves his axe right through the man’s knees severing both and causing him to fall to the ground. Leorblak cannot help but feel satisfied that it was not only his blood that stained the snow now. 

He didn’t have much time though, and his focus turns to the other braves who were now circling the wounded man who slowly gets to his feet to face them. He could see that most of his men were dead or wounded, and the few that were alive still were in the process of being mutilated, the Miagani never tiring of their war trophies.

Leorblak wasn’t giving up. ‘Harleigha, I must give her time to get away’.

Another brave decides to attack, and his head is quickly shorn from his body, sent somewhere out into the dark to rest in the snowdrifts. This seems to confuse the others who had already seen some of their best warriors slaughtered in the range of seconds. 

Leorblak flashed them a bloody smile. “Come on! Which of you wants to go to Odin’s corpse hall next?”

“Nei, nei you fools! Fools, hahahahaha!”

  
A familiar voice which makes Leorblak’s blood boil. “Sigurd Loki Born” he seethes, having known that he was the man leading this assault but never have expected him to actually show himself. The man in question steps forward, his axe unsheathed and in his hand.

“My Jarl”.

He raises his fist and closes his fingers, signalling for the archers to begin firing. An arrow slams right into Leorblak’s knee cap, sending him to the ground with a snarl as he fights to get up. “FIGHT ME WITH HONOR!” he screams, making a futile charge at the circling group of Miagani who only back up at his advance.

Another arrow is notched and it buries itself in his shoulder. Another, this time in his stomach. Still...he keeps on, moving towards the ever shifting Sigurd who refuses to get close. When an arrow finally lands in his eye, he falls, unable to fight as his axe falls away from him, clattering across the snow covered stones.

He’s breathing heavily, unable to keep on.

“Leorblak!”

He turns and sees Harleigha being pulled out of the longhouse with the other women, each under guard by a hulking native. He smiles beside himself and his inevitable fate. “Harleigha...my wife”.

She is tossed to her knees before him in the circle and kept with her arms pinned behind her back. She looks over his wounds, and knows in her heart that this is the end. “Leorblak….”. The tears fall freely from her eyes, for of all things she would never be ashamed of how she felt. He comforts her as best as he can, with the warmth of his remaining eye.

He chuckles to himself, his breath coming out raspily. “I’m...I’m like Odin One Eye now”.

Harleigha laughs back, trying to keep calm. “You’re much more handsome beloved”.

“Aww, now isn’t this touching?”

Both of their eyes are drawn back to Sigurd who strolls leisurely into the circle, protected by the warriors he had somehow won over to himself. Leorblak need not waste time with asking why or how. He knew that the man’s moniker was there for a reason and his honeyed words could convince nearly anyone if only he could learn their language.

He sprawls his arms out and smiles deeply, his lips almost a blood red that contrasted horrifically against his pale white skin. “Harleigha” he teases out, trying to say the word as sensuously as possible while kneeling down before Leorblak. 

She snarls in response, desiring nothing more than his death at that moment.

“Hmm...well, we shall get to you then”.

He turns back to his former Jarl whose life was rapidly leaving him. He wanted to kill the man, but he couldn’t even move his arms. “Sigurd…” he says, hoping that his one last wish would be granted. His eyes move across the snow to his axe. “My axe...please…”.

“Ahh you want your axe so that you can go to Valhalla hmm?” the man teases out, pushing the man by his forehead onto his back. He lets out a grunt of pain and Harleigha a muffled cry. “Sigurd...please...give him his axe! Let him die with it in his hands!” she pleads, knowing how important it was to the man to be counted alongside Odin at Ragnarok.

Sigurd moves over to the axe and picks it up, returning to his former Jarl’s side and kneeling down. “And what would you give me for such an act Harleigha?”

She grimaces and looks down, her eyes closed in shame. “Anything”.

“Yourself?”

“Yes…”.

“Harleigha...nei” Leorblak moans out. Sigurd however, was laughing as was per usual for him these days. He looks back towards the man, and without a word brings the axe crashing down into his chest. Leorblak exhales, one last time as his eyes look up into nothingness. He does not feel the wings of the Valkyries rushing to him, only the gripping cold that was slowly beginning to encase him.

“Sigurd please! His axe! Place it in his hands” Harleigha cries out, struggling against the men that held her. Sigurd does nothing except to stand and toss the axe away, glaring hatefully down at the man he once called Jarl.

“YOU’LL BURN IN HELHEIM FOREVER!! MAY BALOR FEAST ON YOUR BONES!!”

“Ahh such spirit” Sigurd teases the screaming woman. “But unfortunately, it’s more likely that your late husband is there right now, in Helheim, frozen by the misty breath of Hel. Or maybe he’s warming her bed now. Who knows?” he asks himself before chuckling.

“However, on to the matter at hand Harleigha. All your people are dead, except for your women of course, of which you are my prime interest”. He moves over towards her and runs his fingers through her long blonde hair. She struggles and cries out, wanting nothing to do with the man’s touch. “You offered me this delectable body in return for your husbands entry into Valhalla…” he says, reaching down to grope the woman’s chest through her dress.

Harleigha takes this opportunity to slam her face forward against his, breaking the man’s nose. Sigurd withdrawals in pain, falling onto his rear end in the snow while one of the braves strikes the cruelly grinning woman.

She didn’t care, and all she focused on was the satisfaction she got from inflicting pain, even a fraction of pain, upon the man who killed her husband. “You whore! You broke my nose…”.

“An improvement” she spits scornfully.

Sigurd pulls his hand away from his nose and smiles, letting the blood run down his lips without a care. He throws his head back in laughter, apparently enjoying this. “HAHHAHAHAH! Ohh Harleigha...you have spirit. You do” he teases while standing. “That’s why I desire you so”.

“You’ll never have me”.

“I think so” he says. “You see, you already offered it. I didn’t accept it then because your laying with me would only become a symbol of your love for your husband. I couldn’t have that. I shall make you another offer. These women here” he says, gesturing over the group. “The braves wish to kill them. Food has been scarce this winter” he teases out. “However, if you agree to become my wife...I shall have them spared”.

“Don’t agree Harleigha!”

“We’d rather die beside you!”

All the women were in agreement, their own husbands having been killed as well. Harleigha smirks up at the man who seemed to grow more and more hateful by the second. “You shall never have me Sigurd. I will sleep in a bone cairn, and if my spirit may not destroy you, my children’s children will wreak vengeance upon yours until the blood debt you owe me is fulfilled”.

This sends murmurs of aggravation amongst the group who, while unable to speak the language of the Norsemen, seemed to understand that their chieftain’s demands, and thus their own, were not going to be met.

Sigurd raises his hand, and brings it down, which tells the warriors to begin slicing the throats of the survivors. Women and children were not spared, and their cries of horror echoed through the night, causing hot tears to slide down the woman’s face at what was happening.

She could do nothing.

“As for you” Sigurd says, grasping the woman and pulling her to her feet. “We have a special fate for you. Bring the corpse to the tomb we’ve prepared for him” he shouts out, gesturing towards Leorblak’s fallen body. “He is a Jarl after all”.

Loki Born’s bone chilling laughter could be heard through the snow storm that had erupted about the burning village, covering the ash and few standing structures that remained.

Soon, it would all be gone. Not even a trace left.

**_Arkham Asylum, Present Day_ **

“Warden Wayne?”

“Yes Ms. Vale?” Harleen asks while standing at the podium before the crowd of curious reporters.

“I just wanted to ask about the fire that broke out here at Arkham?” the reporter goes on. “Does that affect how things are going to be done here? Security protocols and what not?”

Harleen sighs, having somewhat expected this question. “Well, yes. Unfortunately for too long Arkham has been hampered by shortages, either of manpower or of funding and it’s cost quite a few lives” she says before smiling.

“I don’t want to toot my husbands horn, well, not where you can all see me do it”.

The crowd bursts out into laughter, reminding her that she shouldn’t have been worried in the first place. Everyone loved hearing from her, and half of the city’s most important people, usually too busy to care about anything beyond the appointment they made to do their hair, came out to listen.

‘Not that it means they care’ she reminds herself before continuing on.

“Bruce has been instrumental in keeping Gotham going as much as he has, but it shouldn’t just be his responsibility. This is a public institution meant to help Gotham. And what’s being done here?” she asks. “The best we can do. Well, I want us to do better. Jonathan Crane was a very sick man...I can attest to that myself”.

The crowd nods in sympathy, everyone having heard about what happened when the man broke out of maximum security. 

“What we need is…”.

“A little laughter! Hahaha!”

She knew the voice, but most importantly, she knew the laugh. Joker was walking into the room with a gaggle of armed goons at his back. “Hello Gotham. Seeing as this is a public soiree and I pay taxes, even I don’t take on the IRS, I think my friends and I are well within our rights to be here”.

“That’s right Mister J!”

Bruce quickly rushes from the front row onto the stage beside Harley, wanting to be near his wife in case she needed his protection while also wanting to survey the situation as best as he could. “Harleen…” he whispers. “We have to get to the cave”.

Joker was preoccupied for the moment in taunting the people closest to the door, and already one was lying dead on the floor thanks to the rifle of one of the Joker mask clad goons. The woman, who was unknown to them at the moment but was obviously affiliated with the Joker due to her pale skin and green hair, was busy slamming one of the camera’s covering the meeting into the operator’s face.

“The cave is at the Manor Puddin’. We can’t…”.

“I built one on the island…”.

Without further explanation he grasps her hand and pulls her behind the curtains and into the rear hallway, leaving the building as quickly as possible. 

“What?”

“It was supposed to be a surprise” he says back, ducking into one of the service vents that littered the entire island. It helped to navigate easily without being seen. The tunnels were very effective. “A place that was kind of just yours. If you needed it”.

“Aww Bruce...that’s so sweet? But now it’s coming in handy. Joker escaped a while ago. Who knows what he’s been getting up to”.

“Best we suit up and make sure that whatever it is, ends here” he growls. 

**_Wayne Manor_ **

He knew Bruce would probably be mad at him, but he couldn’t help himself. 

The sword. It was just...always calling to him.

Even when he was asleep he’d hear its siren call all the way down in the cave. Last night, when everyone had come in from patrol, he just couldn’t take it. He’d jumped out of bed, slid down to the cave and taken it up to his room.

He’d been reading the book that Father Blood had gifted him, and while it was difficult sometimes to navigate the old english, he’d done a well enough job. Battles upon battles. He felt...he felt like he was there. He could taste the dry air mixing with the blood, the clang of swords against shield.

And the sword….always whispering.

_ “Take up your weapon holy knight” _

“Whatcha’ doing?”

He jumps, not having expected Barbara to just waltz into his room, though he probably should’ve known it from the get go.

She was there all the time.

“Barbara….jeez, don’t sneak up on me like that”.

The girl just shrugs and jumps onto his bed, laying on her back to look up the ceiling. “You’re a Robin. You’re supposed to be constantly alert” she teases, making fun of Bruce. Jason smirks back and nods, agreeing with her.

He turns the chair he was sitting in to look at her, also trying to keep his attention off of the sword. “What are you doing?”

“I’m bored”.

“Sooo...you came into my room?”

“You’re my boyfriend” she teases, moving up to her side to pat the side of the bed. “Your job is too keep me constantly entertained and happy”.

He rolls his eyes but moves to the bed regardless, slipping in next to her. Instantly she attaches herself to him by wrapping her arms about his midsection, pulling the two bodies tight together. They did this a lot. Just cuddled.

He didn’t mind at all.

“So, what did you want to do? Wanna watch a movie?”

“Nah. Nothing to watch”.

“Wanna read a book?”   
  


“Blegh”.

“I figured”.

She looks up at him and brushes her hand over his face lovingly. “I kind of just...want to lay here with you” she admits. “And maybe...I don’t know...talk?”

“What do you want to talk about?”

He knew that when she got like this it was because she was bothered by something on her mind, and he knew what was usually on her mind. He didn’t probe, he didn’t force it out of her. He just let her talk and say what she needed to.

“I love you”.

“I know. I love you too”.

Barbara smiles and scoots up a bit, stroking her fingers through his hair. “I don’t think you do know” she teases, kissing his forehead. “I know I’ve been a major bitch to you Jason. I’ve loved you for a long time now so don’t think it’s a childish “we’ve been dating for two months in highschool so I tell you I love you” kind of thing. It’s real”.

“I know Barbara. I really love you too”.

She blushes and looks down, taking his hand and placing hers within it. “I think a lot about the future. Don’t get worried or anything but...I like imagining us, where Bruce and Harleen are now” she explains.

Jason nods, already in agreement. “Never knew you wanted to take over as Batwoman. Mom doesn’t think you’d want to keep it up”.

“I do. Especially if I’m doing it beside you”.

The two lean in and kiss again, and Jason wraps his hands around her waist. “I wouldn’t do it with anyone else”.

**_Downstairs_ **

“Sooooo...where are Vic and Dinah?”

Alfred was standing at the sink, washing dishes and Elise was seated at the table behind him, the two of them having just finished their lunch. “Escorting the children to the park I believe”.

“Hmm...and Barbara and Jason are upstairs?”

The man blushes at that and stops washing for a moment. “Well, yes I do believe so”.

Elise smiles and bites her lip, loving how she could put her boyfriend, usually so rigid and in control, off balance. She looked down and studied the dress she wore while “on duty” at the manor. A conservative piece, though on her frame? It was still rather seductive. ‘Hmm...would he want to play a game of discipline the sexy maid?’

“And Bruce and Harleen are at that Arkham function right?”

“Yes, they’ll be there until later tonight” he explains a little downcast. “Apparently nobody except us will be home for dinner. I was planning on making a stuffed phe…”.

His words are interrupted as a body molds into his back and Elise reaches around to rub up and down the man’s chest and stomach. “Elise! We are in the kitchen”. The older blonde just chuckles and nuzzles her cheek against his back. “So? Nobody is here. Come on Al. Come upstairs with me and remind your girlfriend of how much you love her”.

“There is much work to be done Elise!”

“Like what?”

“Well...the dishes…”.

“Are almost done” she cuts him off. “Besides that...I’ve swept up all the rooms, washed all the rugs, vacuumed, cleaned the kids rooms, put their toys away andddddd...I polished the batmobile’s hug caps and cleaned up the cave a bit. And now? I’m sore. Especially in my breasts”. She begins to rub said part of her anatomy up against the man’s back.

“Elise….”.

“Come onnnn” she whines, utilizing her pout as the man turns in her arms and places his own about her waist. “Be my big, strong, retired SAS man for a little while?”

The man seemed inclined to keep arguing but one look at her face, with those full and sensuous lips pouted in a quivering way.

“Ohh, blast it”.

He leans down and captures her lips between his own, crushing the woman to him and causing her to let out an “eep” as he savages her. She moans, and a leg slowly rises as her eyes close, the two lovers getting lost in some of the very limited free time they could manage with one another.

He picks her up by the rear, showcasing the strength that he still had within him. As he gropes her buttcheeks under her skirt, she thrusts her tongue into his mouth, wiggling her bottom to urge him on as he picks her up and puts her on the table.

‘Ohh Alfred! We eat here’ she thinks out, wrapping her arms around his shoulders to pull him in even more. ‘How scandalous’.

She brings a leg up to wrap around his waist when a large explosion rocks the front of the house. The two instantly separate and turn their eyes to the right where the front doors to Wayne Manor are blasted inwards.

“What the devil!”

“Alfred, safe room!” she shouts out, jumping off of the table and rushing towards the other end of the kitchen. 

“I am not leaving Jason and Barbara or even the Manor alone to whoever these hooligans are…”.

“We’re not you old geezer!” she shouts, pulling open a closet door and flipping the switch that opened into the hidden safe room. “I moved our guns and stuff in here and made some...adjustments”.

She reaches behind her to undo the dress, letting it fall down her aged, but still toned and fit body. She reaches towards one of the shelves and grabs some pants, slipping into them and a grey army shirt before practically slamming her feet into combat boots. Alfred was quick to join her, being already well dressed for quick combat movement in his slacks, shirt and shoes. “Here!” she says, handing him over a Galil rifle. 

“My word…”.

He was acting on instinct now and he flicked off the safety of the rifle and ensured that it was loaded. Elise meanwhile, had grabbed her favorite m16 and readied it as well.

“Elise...where have you been getting all of these rifles?”

“Shhh” she teases, placing a finger over his lips and smiling. “Just focus on defending this manor with your insanely badass, and very hot for her age, girlfriend who is hyper prepared for anything and everything”.

Meanwhile, the attackers had entered through the gaping hole in the wall where the door had once been. “Well, Wayne Manor huh? Papa Joker and I might like it here when its all said and done” Jester teases, waving about his own green and purple painted Ak47.

“And me Jester?”

He turns and smiles, swatting his mole on the rear, enjoying how she looked in the short shorts and wrap she wore. ‘Raggedy Anne, never thought I’d pop a boner to that’ he thinks before realizing that it probably had more to do with the fact that she was sporting a shotgun and ammo pouches as well.

“Of course my little pumpkin. You, me and my pops. Sounds awesome”.

He then focuses on the mission at hand, a sinister smile splitting his lips. “Yoohooo! Any Wayne’s in the building?”

Others had begun to flow in from behind, all armed to the teeth as well. “Fan out. Find ‘em. Joker wants them all dead” he says, not seeing the two figures that had somehow moved to the second floor and were now scoping them out as they advanced.

Elise clung to the side of a column, already wanting to draw a bead on the leader. Still, she looks towards Alfred, waiting for his word. ‘All those self defense courses mixed with war movies did help me. Ha! Take that Nick!’.

Alfred looks towards her and nods, moving around the corner of his own column and firing a perfectly aimed shot into one of the goon’s legs. He falls with a scream, and they all turn to where the shot had come from. One raises his rifle to take aim, though he’s taken down just as quickly by a round through the hip. He falls, his rifle scattering away as he does.

“On the second floor! Ice those fuckers!”

A series of shots ring out, imbedding themselves in the ancient wood though missing the targets completely as Elise and Alfred duck down and crawl to another position. “Non-lethal shots only if you can…”.

“I’ll try Al baby. I will. Be these screwballs in the clown paint are trying to harm my man and my grandbabies. Again!” she shouts, stopping to press her back against a table she quickly overturned. She regards him with a nod. “We need to get the kids out!”

**_Jason’s Room_ **

“What the hell is going on?”

The two teens sat bolt upright in the bed, instant rushing to the sound of gunfire and the following explosion. “Ohh god! Nana! Alfred!”

Barbara rushes out first with Jason hot on her heels. He stops though, right as he’s about to exit, the voice hits him again.

_ “WAIT!” _

He turns to see the sword still resting against his desk, and he wastes no further time in grabbing it off of the desk and rushing to where Barbara had gone. “Babs wait!”.

He slides into the hallway, the sword gripped firmly in his hands. It seemed to shake with energy, urging him onwards with a bravery he only really felt while wearing the Robin suit. 

_ “Onward knight! Into the battle! Your God will protect you”. _

The battle was reaching a fever pitch now, and Babs was already in the heat of it. One of the clowns had taken advantage of Elise and Alfred’s movement and were now advancing up the stairs. He had apparently run smack dab into the redhead who put her training into her unique blend of quick and very brutal action.

She’d grabbed the man by the back of the head and forcibly slammed his face down against her jean clad knee, breaking his nose and most likely his jaw as well. Before he even had a chance to moan in pain, she’d thrown him down the stairs, using him as a human bowling ball that knocks down three others who’d tried to advance.

“Fuck you”.

Barbara was already getting into this.

A quick burst of automatic fire rings out, though it was nowhere near accurate. It slammed into the bannister near the girl. She was never good at quick action. Jason was.

Before the bursts can get anymore accurate, he jumps up and rushes towards the girl, catching her by the midsection and bringing them both down before the next burst got to them. The bullets pass right over their prone bodies and destroy a portrait hanging on the wall behind them.

Jason continues to shield Barbara, placing his body over hers in order to keep her safe. 

“Master Jason! Miss Barbara! Stay down!”

Alfred calls out to them and backs it up by letting a burst from his own rifle go, keeping those who were still fighting to make their way up the stairs at bay. “It’s okay sweeties! Nana and Alfred are here and WE’RE GOING TO KILL ALL OF YOU IF MY GRANDBABIES ARE HURT!” Elise shouts, joining in with her M16.

The fire had dimmed due to the return fire from the older couple but it hadn’t disappeared. Instead? It had halted. “Just come on down and make this easy on yourselves!” Jester shouts. “I promise I wont shoot you in the face so you can all have an open casket funeral. Heheh, Joker might even get ole Blackfire to do a sermon or some dumb shit”.

DeeDee melds into his side and smiles, brandishing her own weapon. “Hahah wouldn’t that be cute? I bet it would be a niiiiice funeral. All those freaks and cultists over the casket”.

Barbara instantly turns ramrod stiff, and pushes Jason off of him. “Babs wait!” he shouts, trying to reach her from their relatively safe position on the floor. It was too late though. As soon as she heard the name Blackfire? 

She pushes herself against a column, seething that she doesn’t have a weapon to do something back. Jason gets up and grasps his sword tightly, knowing that he was most likely going to end up using it very soon.

_ “Do not fear! You are a knight. A warrior chosen by God, the arbiter of Dumas!” _

“What the fuck did you clown freaks say? Blackfire? Deacon Blackfire?” she calls out questioningly. “Yeah, what about him?”

“Is a redhead older woman with them?”

“With a huge rack? Yeah. She’s there. What about her?”

Barbara looks down and starts to breath deeply, trying to maintain her calm. ‘I need to get out of the mansion. She’s out there. I wont fucking lose her! Not this time!’.

She looks around and then upwards, seeing the chandelier that hung above the floor below. Right across from it, at least seven feet, was a window. She knew she couldn’t get through the front door. They were too well armed and she was angry, but not quite suicidal. ‘Shimmy up the column, jump to the chandelier, swing and through the window out onto the ledge. She knew it was a good nineteen foot drop from then down to ground level, but she was sure she could make it.

Without even thinking any further on her plan, she begins to climb upwards,, skirting around the column. “Babs! Babs what are you doing?”

She doesn’t have a chance to answer Jason, as she is too focused on her mission, her self appointed mission. “Miss Barbara! Get…”.

Another burst of automatic fire interrupts the butler who was hit in the arm and thrown back. “Alfred!” Elise moves over to the man and abandons her position, alerting the thugs down below that they had an opening.

“Quick! Advance up the stairs! Take them out!”

Jason hears them begin to move up the stairs, and he sees them even begin to take aim at Barbara now that they had a clearer view of her. She was so focused on making it to the chandelier that she didn’t notice them.

_ “SAVE HER IF YOU LOVE HER!” _

He jumps up, the sword in his hand. He doesn’t know why, nor does he have the time to dwell on it, but the sword is soon engulfed in flame. Even his hand, though he doesn’t feel any pain. He charges at the stairs, not focusing on anything other than protecting Barbara.

The clowns were zeroed in on Barbara and ready to take aim, until the boy with a flaming sword distracted them. 

Jason had hurled himself into the air, and drawn the sword behind his back to bring in down in a flaming arc that promised nothing but pain to those who stood in its way.

That wasn’t the only thing to draw their attention however.

Behind Jason was an apparition, a horse with a knight of old upon its back. He too held a sword, though he held it aloft. His entire body, his and the horses, were covered in flames though neither was even singed by the deadly inferno. He regards them with baleful eyes, nothing but orbs of holy light that took them in and knew of their sins instantly.

“GO FORTH! FOR YOU ARE HIS AVENGING ANGEL! I CHRISTEN THEE AZRAEL!”

Jason heard the voice though he does not question it. Instead he focuses on bringing the sword down upon the steps, cleaving the wood in two and frightening the remaining members of Jester’s hit squad. The two closest to the area of the sword are thrown back over the bannister, their weapons flying away and scattering against the floor.

Jason looks up at the remainder of the attackers, who regard him fearfully. Even Barbara, still mid climb, stops to look on at her boyfriend, with a wounded Alfred and Elise peaking over the bannister. “My word…”.

“Get. Out” he says, raising the sword again.

Many of them didn’t have to be told twice, though Jester and DeeDee both remain. “What the fuck is this shit J?”

“I have no clue Dee. Whatever it is? It isn’t good”.

**_Downtown Gotham_ **

Their position atop the building was ideal as it allowed them to look over the bustling streets below them without being spied from afar.    
  


Jonathan Crane didn’t care for any of that though. He wanted to be seen. His whole mission was to be seen. 

  
And feared.

“Are the launchers ready?”

He audibly sighed as the mad cleric approached him, his wife and stepson in tow. Scarecrow splays his hand out, gesturing towards the handmade launchers that were perched atop the building. They resembled small military style mortars, and they were loaded.

“The canisters are ready to go”.

“Good..today we shall…”.

Crane turns and places his gloved hand over Blackfire’s mouth, not wanting to hear yet another sermon. “Shut. Up”.

He releases the man and shoves him back, prompting a response from James Jr. who steps forward angrily. “Don’t touch my servant like that!”.

Crance chuckles, moving onto his knees.

“Why?”

“Because I’m God and I told you so” the boy says petulantly. “God hmm? Well, now that is an interesting idea”. Before anyone can react he grabs the boy by the wrist and swings him out over the side of the building, holding him there by his wrist.

“Noooo!” 

Barbara and Blackfire both scream, making to move forward and stop him. A raised hand is enough to warn them of the ignorance of such a move, and James begins to cry as he is danged twelve stories up.

“Ple...please...please….” he sobs.

“Do you fell that?”

“What?” James screams back, a wet and warm trail making its way down his pants leg. “Ohh no. God pissed himself” Crane teases, laughing low and ominous. “I’m asking if you feel the fear. The fear of falling to your death...you know you would die right? Or does your belief in your own divinity keep you from even seeing that as possible”.

“Please...bring him back here!” Barbara cries out, being held by Blackfire who wanted no rash move to be made. “For God’s sake demon! He’s but a child”.

“That’s the point” Crane says, turning back to the two parents and the rest of the assembled flock, some of which had readied their rifles to fire though had refused to out of fear. If they killed the Scarecrow...James would fall.

“This is for your so called God’s sake. To let him feel just a sliver of what his subjects feel every day”.

Without warning he picks the boy up and tosses the sobbing mass back at his mother who eagerly scoops him up and holds the boy against her.

“There is no God”.

  
Crane turns to looking back over the mass of people below him. “Only fear. And fear? Fear is coming a lot quicker than any god. Fire the canisters”.

With that, the Joker’s men who had been attached to Crane rush forward the mortars and begin to prime them. The canisters release from the tubes with continuous “wump, wump” sounds, landing in the streets below them. 

The pedestrians are confused at first, thinking them nothing more than some elaborate prank or a smoke grenade of some sort. This confusion didn’t last long, and the air is soon broken with the sounds of shear panic.

People cry out in pain as they turn on one another, using every weapon at their disposal to keep the “monsters” they were seeing at bay.

“Thus..I have become Shiva. Destroyer of worlds” Crane says to himself, chuckling ominously as the laughter kicks in as well. 

Yes.

Joker and Scarecrow had made a potent witches brew.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright. I haven't lost it. Back on track for one every night. This took me a while though so I hope you guys like it and it's good. Also, wanted to pick your brains and see what my loyal readers might like. An idea has picked my brain with the same intensity as the "When Harley Met Bruce" trilogy. An Adaption of Gotham By Gaslight. Now this would most likely be a single story arc with Bruce put up against...well...something. But, I'm curious about the pairing you'd like to see. As much as I love Bruce and Harley, not sure I'd be able to do another story with them as the focal when I'm using all barrels on the two for this one so here are the options in my mind,
> 
> 1). A prostitute by by the name of Pamela Isley whom Bruce saves from.....someone who likes killing prostitutes in the late 19th century. Many people fit that description...(Jack the Ripper).  
> 2). Helena Bertinelli, an Italian immigrant rushing to Gotham City to escape certain death in Sicily  
> 3). Dinah Lance, a tough speaking, tough drinking Irish gal that leads a gang in Gotham's deadly three points who is locked in a struggle for control of the city's underworld  
> 4). The police commissoner's daughter, Barbara Gordon whom Bruce would be courting in this world.
> 
> Let me know what you guys think. If you'd be interested in this type of story and which pairing you feel would be best for this one. Love to all of you!

**_20 years prior, Smallville Kansas_ **

“Clark sweetie? Are you hungry?”

Martha was in the kitchen, making a sandwich for her husband who was passed out drunk on the couch. Nothing was different, and she turns to reach her hand up to her eye, wincing as she makes contact with the sore and discolored flesh.

“No thank you mama”.

The boy was instantly behind her, having heard her from upstairs. She couldn’t help but smile at that. ‘That super hearing of his’.

Still...that only meant that he would hear many other things that went on in this house. Things no boy should have to hear. She turns and moves down to her knees, placing her hands on her son’s shoulder. “You sure sweetie? You haven’t eaten all day” she says, putting on a brave face. She hated the sadness she saw in his eyes, the aging.

He was older inside than any young boy had a right to be.

‘He can’t have friends, he can’t go outside’ she laments, looking at the couch where her sleeping husband was. She turns back to the boy and tries to make sense of what was going on in those sad eyes of his. 

“I’m okay mama” he repeats.

She reaches up and brushes her finger through his hair, curling a few strands around said finger with a smile. “Well, if you get hungry you just call me and I’ll whip you…”.

“We ain’t got enough food to feed this boy whatever he damn well wants whenever he wants it”.

She grimaces as the voice cuts in, though she tries to hide it as she knows that any negative reaction would be taken the wrong way...and she’d get a beating for it. Jonathan walks into the kitchen, having heard their conversation from the couch where they thought he had been asleep.

He brings the half drunk bottle of beer to his lips and finishes it off, wiping the remnants from his lips and throwing the bottle into the sink. Clark just averted his eyes, looking down as he knew that Jon didn’t like it when he caught his gaze. 

“I…I just wanna make sure he ain’t hungry Jon..that’s all”.

The nervousness in the little boy’s eyes was enough to make Martha’s heartbreak. All those years ago when they took him in, she had half expected that maybe, just maybe, Jon might’ve taken to fatherhood better than he had to being a husband.

It was a stillborn dream.

He’d treated Clark with apathy at best and disdain at worst. As soon as he figured out that there was no way to make money off of Clark being an alien, he’d given up. He hit the boy occasionally, but never as much as he hit Martha. The drinking and joblessness had gotten worse though, which made the man a stickler for money. Unless it came to beer or cigarettes. Then he seemed to have an endless supply of cash.

“He ain’t hungry”.

He reaches out and grabs Clark by the upper arm, squeezing tightly. “This piece of shit was supposed to put food on our table. All he does is eat off of it and here you are, offering to make him a sandwich”.

He brings his hand down on Clark’s face, throwing the boy back. “No! Jon please! Stop! He’s just a boy!”

Martha makes to get up, wanting to stop the man but a backhand across the face sends her flying into the kitchen table where she cuts open her cheek. “Mama!”

“It ain’t your mama you should be worried about boy!”

Jon rains down a flurry of slaps and punches right on the boy, though he was significantly less affected than a normal child would be. Martha was crawling away, making it to her feet and stumbling out of the room.

“Mama! Please help!”

“Hehe she’s running boy. She knows whats smart. Why don’t you?”

Jon brings down another fist, this time firmly on the boy’s face. Clark closes his eyes for the impact, but when it comes he feels no pain. In fact, Jon was the one who would be more hurt by this.

His fist makes contact with the boy’s nose and promptly snaps back, breaking in two neat pieces. “Ahhhh what the fuck?”

He throws the boy back, letting him impact against the wall as he cradles his shattered and limp hand. “What the fuck did you do to me?”

He snarls at the boy, making ready to advance on him again. 

Clark was feeling something that he never gave into before. Something he’d always tried to bury in case he let it get out of hand.

His eyes flare up red, and Jon’s expression of rage was mirrored by the one that was now plastered over the twelve year old boy’s face. He puts his arms out and begins to float a bit up into the air over the kitchen tiles. 

Jon looks on, first in horror but then bemused as he continues to hold his hand.

“What are you gonna do you little bitch huh?”

Clark hadn’t been expecting that. Indeed he had just been expecting Jonathan to run. Instead, the man starts laughing. “You what? Gonna vaporize me with your heatwave eyes or some shit? Hehehe, sure Mr. tough alien guy. Do it! And while you’re at it, stop pissing your bed and crying everytime you hear thunder huh?”

The man’s laughter disarms Clark and slowly his eyes return to their normal coloration while he falls back to the floor. He looks away, feeling nothing but shame. “Pft, pathetic. You always were. Unable to do shit for yourself. A little mama’s boy”.

Jon moves to his feet, letting his limp hand go as he works on taking off his belt. “Even your own mama don’t want you. Not that she’s your real mama. Your real parents hated you so much they threw you off their goddamn planet. Think about that”.

The man advances on the once more cowering boy who tries to shield his face. “Now? Imma make sure you pay for breakin’ my hand. Hell, maybe I’ll even kill you if possible. Ain’t like anyone will miss…”.

A large bang emanates out across the house, and Jon stops in his tracks, not moving any further. Clark slowly lowers his hand away from his face, curious about the sound and why he wasn’t being horribly beaten. When he looks up he’s shocked by what he sees.

His entire chest was open, the blood detritus of his cavity having been sprayed out at the wall and to on himself the boy notices. Jonathan Kent looks down and the belt drops from his hand. Slowly he reaches up, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. He didn’t have long though, and he dies right there, still on his feet.

His body, big and strong despite his years of alcohol abuse and lack of exercise, first falls to its knees and then forward on Clark.

As soon as the man’s body was over his, the boy comes to life and scuffles out from under him fearfully, shocked that he was dead. He could sense it though. The lack of a heartbeat was what tipped him off first though how could there be a heartbeat when the man’s heart was splattered across the kitchen wall?

He was breathing heavily, trying to focus on what he was seeing before the sound of something dropping to the floor behind him tips him off. Clark turns his head and sees his mother standing further back in the kitchen, a discarded shotgun on the floor beside her. 

She was different to him now though.

She looked coldly and cruelly down at the man’s corpse, a sick little smile twisting her lips. “That’s the last time anyone hurts my baby boy”.

“Mama”.

His call seems to have power over her, and she turns to see the cowering child, all malice dropping from her face as she rushes to hold Clark in her arms. “Ohh baby...shhh, mama’s here. It’s fine. He will never hurt us again..either of us”.

He nuzzles into her, feeling more and more comforted as time went on. “But...but you said..killing is bad…”.

She turns her head to the side, hating that he was asking her this now. Still, it made her smile to think that he took what she had to say about morality to heart. She brushes her hand over the top of his head and looks him in the eye. “Sometimes Clark, sometimes...people need to be killed. People who really deserve it. People who only hurt other people”.

He was looking up at his mother with all the trust he could muster.

“And he? He really deserved it sweetheart so don’t worry about it okay?” she asks while kissing his cheek. “Besides, mommy took care of it. Now, how about this, help me carry him out behind the barn and we’ll bury him. Then you take a shower and we’ll go out to the diner tonight and the movies? Would you like that?”

Clark indeed liked that thought as he’d never actually been out to eat before, let alone see a movie. He knew about diner’s and movies from the glimpses he’d get at the tv when Jon had him clean up after him or bring him something.

“Good. Just think of it like...taking out trash sweetie. Ohh, and if anyone asks? He went away. Took off for Mexico” she says while grabbing his shoulders. “It’s not like anyone would actually miss him anyways”.

  
Clark picks the whole body up himself, shocking his mother with how quickly he’d acted. “Can I use my powers mama? Let me do it for you!”

They’d known about Clark’s abilities for a long time but out of fear of him being taken, the two adults for different reasons, hadn’t told anyone. Still, it had led to him being sequestered away inside for much of his life.

“Alright sweetie but just...be careful alright. Are you sure you can handle…”.

Before she got the last words out the boy was gone, quicker than the rush of the wind. She then saw something bright red emanate from outside and before she could get a fix on it Clark was back. “Didn’t even bury the body mama! I just incinerated it. It’s gone”.

Martha was aghast for a moment before realizing just how smart that policy actually was. ‘You’ve seen enough crime shows. No body? No crime’.

“Aww my little genius!” she says, reaching down to pat his cheek. “Now, how about you go get showered and changed and we’ll go”.

“Alright mama!”

He kisses her cheek and rushes up the stairs with the same speed he had used to dispose of the body, his excitement endemic. She knew that if he could make the water come out faster he would be even quicker.

Martha smiles to herself, feeling safe for the first time in a very long time. She knew that she’d killed, taken a life, but she meant what she said to Clark. 

Some people had it coming. She wasn’t going to apologize for what she’d done or cry over killing Jonathan just like he had never apologized for what he’d done to them or cried over the pain he inflicted.

No. The time for guilt and pain was over.

Now? She had to live and teach her son to do the same.

She could finally smile again.

**_Present Day Gotham, Lexcorp Headquarters_ **

“What’s going on?”

“An attack on Downtown Lex” Mercy says, catching up to the man who was walking rapidly down the hall.

“Dammit. Any intel?”

“As of right now? Nothing” she admits, not liking it when she didn’t have something workable. “At least not on who did it. We do know that it’s a chemical attack and there are multiple casualties”.

Luthor doesn’t say anything else before rushing into his office, Mercy stopping to close the door. It was clear that he wanted privacy to direct whatever operation it was that he was going to undertake. 

“Did you get Bruce on the line?”

“No. He didn’t pick up”.

“Dammit” he says slamming his fist down on the desk. “I hate to make this call without his input”.

“What call sir?”

Lex looks over towards his phone and reaches for it, dialing a number quickly. ‘It’s better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission anyway’.

On the third ring the recipient picks up, someone that Mercy could hear as Lex has put him on speaker. “Hey Lexxie, how’s it going mate?”

The bald man sighs and shakes his head, not liking having to converse with the irritable man he’d recruited at all. “Constantine. Is your team there?”

“We’re here and ready Lex. Like we have been for the longest time. What’s the matter? Got something for us?”

It’s quiet on Lex’s end for a moment as he considers his next words, indeed his whole course of action. ‘Bruce isn’t going to like this’ he thinks, before reminding himself that this could be the perfect opportunity for them to prove themselves to the Batman.

“Yes. I do” he says. “And it’s your chance to finally get out from under the shadows. Batman isn’t on the board at the moment” he explains, trying to keep the fact of Bruce’s lack of answer on hold. “And someone is attacking downtown Gotham. We need to hit back, and right now? You and your team are the only ones available”.

“Bullocks”.

“Do I take that to mean you’re not ready?”

“No, no, not at all” the man says nervously. “It’s just...ahh, sod it. What are we facing”.

Lex smiles to himself, pulling up his laptop to access the security feed that was pouring in from the area. What he saw was pure horror, and he knew there was no way the Batclan would be able to handle this alone.

‘You made the right call Lex’.

“It appears to be some sort of gas. It looks a bit like the fear toxin used by Jonathan Crane not too long ago at Arkham Asylum”.

“Didn’t he bite the bucket?”

“It’s kick the bucket. Or bite the bullet”.

“You and your yank expressions”.

“Enough Constantine” Lex snaps. “This is serious. If you want to see how serious, I’ll send you over a picture of what this gas does”.

He does just that, and soon he hears the phone beep on the other end of the line, signalling the man had gotten his text message. “Jeezus…”.

“He had nothing to do with this. Judging by the smile I’d also have to bet that the Joker is involved with this”.

“Didn’t this Scarecrow fellow die?”

“It was assumed that he did, but when you assume..” Lex trails off.

“Yeah, yeah I know. Alright, what’s the plan?”

“I want you to get downtown and find the origin point of these attacks” Lex orders. “I also want you to be on the lookout for any survivors. Get them to safety if you can”.

“Who should I take with me?” Constantine asks from the other end of the phone.

“Hawkman. Even with the gas masks we’re not sure if this stuff can get through to you. His Thanagarian physiology makes him immune to a lot of compounds that would be fatal to any of us” Lex says. “I want you to dispatch Vixen and Tora to Arkham Asylum. We have reports coming out of there and honestly….that’s probably where you’ll find Batman right now”.

“Sure you want the two most vapid slag...Owww!”

Another voice comes over the line, clearly having taken the phone from the magician. “We’ll be there Lex. Count on us”.

He couldn’t help but smile, always enjoying the calm sensuality that was Mari McCabe. He also liked that she didn’t take Constantine’s attitude or insults without a counterattack of some sort.

“Good. If you meet him, introduce yourselves but make sure that whatever is causing the issue over there is resolved first. Undoubtedly he’ll soon know what’s going on. If he’s angry, tell him to take it up with me”.

“You sure Lex?”.

“I’m sure” he affirms.

“Alright, what about Beast Boy and Bombshell? Also, the...Rogue’s as we’ve been calling them” Mari says, the disdain she felt for the three villains melting through in her voice.

“I need them all to stay back just in case things get hairy. Let them know that further deployment orders will come down from me or Batman. Also, be warned, if the GCPD are on their way to Arkham, which they probably are, Katana will be there with them. I’m not sure if Black Canary and Question will be though”.

“Got it. Over and out”.

Without handing the phone back to Constantine, the black woman hangs up, and Lex puts down his phone to try and take a breather. Mercy is instantly on him, rubbing her hands along his shoulders as she tries to soothe him. “Lex, you made the right call okay? Trust me. He’s going to need help and he was going to meet them sooner or later if he’s going to lead them”.

  
The man breathes deeply, trying to fight the rising panic he felt. They didn’t need this, not right now. He’d though the board was cleared, and that Gotham was ready to be fully fortified. Apparently he’d been wrong.

“I just hope he doesn’t chew my head off over this”.

“He might but, what we know of him? He’s a reasonable man. Quick at adapting too. Batwoman would also keep him honest and fair”.

“True…”.

“Now, what else can we do?” she asks, knowing that the quickest way to get the man’s focus off of his worries was to switch them onto another task. “Disaster response. I want Lexcorp medical personnel moving to the edge of the zone. We need to have a good public image and the people will only trust us if they see us out there. I also want a roving command center to dispatch information as needed. Do you have anything in the area?” he asks while turning to the woman, all sense of worry seeming to have disappeared from his face.

‘Works every time’ she smiles while snapping off a salute. “Yes sir. I’m on it”.

**_Arkham Asylum_ **

“Dee Dee, be a dear and bring me that old woman please?”

“Sure thing Mister J!”

Without a pause the woman who dressed like Raggedy Anne moved over towards the side of the aisle and grabbed the older woman by her arm. “Move it ya old hag”. She throws the woman into the center aisle and points her rifle at her, feeling it beneath her to drag the undoubtedly heavy woman all the way back to Joker.

The man himself stood imperiously in front of the exit of the hall, a smile on his face as usual. His eyes were scanning the crowd, but at the moment he wasn’t finding what he was looking for. “Please! Please don’t hurt me!”.

“Well we wouldn’t have to hurt you if it wasn’t for that bitch Wayne not being here” DeeDee seethes, angered by her “boyfriend’s” interest in the married woman. Joker says nothing and simply watches as the older woman is jabbed in the back with the muzzle of the rifle and pushed forward.

“Please…”.

“Shut the fuck up!” DeeDee screeches, pushing her to the floor in front of the Joker.

She lets out an oof of pain as she impacts hardly against the tile, and begins to blubber in fear as the younger woman moves the rifle to right behind her head.

“Shut up” she says, though this time with a cheery smile.

She turns to look back at the Joker. “Did what you asked sweetiepie!”

“Aww DeeDee you get a gold star for the day”.

The Joker reaches out and pinches her cheek, causing the woman to coo out lovingly before his attention shifts to the prisoner they had on the ground.

“Ohh Harleeeeen!” he shouts. “If you don’t come out, well...that’ll make Joker a dull boy indeed. And you know what happens to me when I get...dull”.

He moves onto his knees and retracts a sickly looking knife which he then proceeds to run along the woman’s back, beginning to apply just enough pressure to slit her dress. The others, under armed guard, grow more and more discomforted and fearful of their own lives, but none make a move to help the woman.

“Well…” he sighs. “I’m getting bored”.

He brings the knife up, intending to bring it right into the woman’s back before an object that slices through the air prevents him from doing so. He knows what it is even before it slices his finger open, causing him to drop his own knife. 

The quick and little grunt of pain he lets out is replaced by a smile, and he turns to where he knew the weapon had come from. 

“Ahh Batwoman, my love”.

He sees her standing upon the stage alone which was unusual. He would have to look out for the other part of the set. ‘A set we’re going to be breaking up very soon my dove’.

He makes a show of standing and fixing his hair, kicking the quivering woman as he goes. “I’m so sorry but you’ve caught me on a bad day. Lucky you, I gussied myself up”.

Batwoman just scowls, knowing that this was all part of the game.

‘Don’t let him get to you. Don’t play along’.

She straightens herself out and looks around, judging how many gunmen there were and accessing their locations. Most of them had their rifles trained on her. She wanted to smile, but that would give the whole game away. 

‘Good. Focus on me’.

“Mister J?”

DeeDee was clinging to his side now, visually annoying the man. “What?!” 

She was taken aback by the snarl and anger in her voice, but her grip on the man who had changed her so thoroughly only increases. “Why does it sound like you care about her?”

Harleen couldn’t help but be interested in this new development. She didn’t know who this woman was, but she did know a basket case when she saw one. ‘I’m guessing Stockholm Syndrome. Hmm...yeah. We can use this’.

She casts an eye up to the overhanging tapestries and banners that had been set up for this event and smiles to herself as she sees the flurry of Bruce’s cape. ‘Alright puddin’. It’s been a while since we’ve been in the field together. Let’s see if mama still has it and if papa can still follow along’.

“Because he does”.

The green haired woman turns back towards the supposedly cornered vigilante and snarls. “What the fuck are you talking about? You’re nothing. Nothing! Me? I’m perfect for him. Look at me”.

“I am looking at you” Harleen says matter of factly. “And all I’m seeing is a delusion. Girl, you have no idea what this is do you?” Harleen couldn’t help but smirk, knowing that that would further sell the act.

“And you do?”

“Yeah, I do. You see, Joker? He’s obsessed with me”.

“No he isn’t! That’s a lie!”

Joker himself was confused, but there was a twinkling in his eye that eventually gave it all away. He knew the game they were playing, and if Harleen was reading the situation correctly, he’d play along.

‘Better hope so Harleen. Otherwise everyone will know who you are, and by extension Bruce’.

“Tell her Joker” Harleen says, gesturing towards the man. “Tell her why you’re here to kill Harleen Quinzel. Tell her how killing her is really just your sick and twisted way of putting your past behind you, in a box”.

“And why would I want to kill my dear old Harleen?” he teases out, chuckling deeply at how easily Batwoman could play the situation. She wanted to vomit, she really did. The man inspired such raw visceral hatred in her that she couldn’t help it. But for now? She’d play the flirt. The coquette. If only to put him back behind bars.

“Because you love me” Harleen says, moving forward and putting everyone on edge. The guards raise their rifles and make ready to fire, though Joker quickly stops them by raising his hand. He was much too focused on the sway of the blonde’s hips and how her smile so neatly curved at the corner. Her sensuous lips were full, and ever so kissable.

“You love me so much that you were waiting for me. Weren’t you cutie?”

“What the fuck is she talking about?” DeeDee asks yet again, backing up and aiming her rifle at the Joker. “Tell her!” she threatens. “Tell her Mister J. Tell her I’m the only one for ya! Tell her that it’s me! ME!”

DeeDee was on the very edge of what promised to be a very violent fall over the cliff and Harleen had to ensure that she didn’t kill herself or anyone else when she did. “Go ahead and tell her Joker” she teases, stopping a foot in front of the man and placing her hand on the hip. “Tell her that it’s her you dream about every night while alone in your cell. Her smile that dominates your every. Single. Thought”.

She reaches out and gently taps his nose with her finger.

DeeDee wasn’t the only one who was being affected. Joker’s eyes were wide and focused and his breathing heavy. Nervous little chuckles and peels of laughter escaped his throat and it was clear that all he wanted to do was rush forward and take the teasing woman into his arms.

The rifle pointed at his head was of no concern, and even now DeeDee was indecisive. The rifle moved in the air, pointed first at Joker and then at Harleen. She was on the verge of tears. Harleen felt awful for her, and wanted to help but with so many people in danger?  
  
She’d do what it takes, and if that meant playing with an already fragile psyche then that was just what she was going to do.

“You...you stole him from me!”

“Aww sweetie” Harleen teases. “You can’t steal what was always yours” she says, moving forward and placing herself against Joker’s chest, her arms going around his shoulders. Again, the urge to vomit wells up within her, but it was clear that her tactic was working. He was positively focused on her. 

“NO! NO!”  
  


DeeDee charges forward, wanting to attack the woman with her bare hands. A very unwise decision. Harleen lets go of the Joker and throws herself at the woman, catching her in a bear hug and throwing her onto the ground, straddling her waist after a moment.

  
Joker brings his hand up to his mouth, blushing and trying to maintain his cool despite the rage of the his body. He was even sporting a now visible erection.

“A catfight? Over little old me?”

Harleen doesn’t answer and instead just brings a clenched fist down upon DeeDee’s jaw, snapping her head back and knocking her out from the force that the tile of the floor hits the back of her head with. 

‘Sorry sweetie. Tough love is the best way forward for you though’.

She pulls herself off of the now prone woman and looks back at the Joker with a wink. “Nothing like a good workout to get the blood pumping”.

“Ohh Batwoman, my blood is already pumping” he teases. “Ohh I can see that”. She wanted to reach out and grab it, but only to twist it off. ‘Pfft, pathetic. Gotta find a way to use that against his ego later….nah...too cruel’.

He reaches out and takes her in his arms again, the widest smile he’d ever possibly had. “What made you decide to wake up and smell the whoopie cushions sweet tart?”

She shrugs apathetically.   
  
“A gal gets bored with the same ole’ bat, same bat channel” she says. She reaches up to caress his cheek with a finger, sensuously pressing her body against his. “Sometimes we wanna take a walk on the wild side”.

“Ahh so is this just a little test drive?”

“Maybe, unless you prove to me I should buy the whole car”.

She notices that her plan was working. The other goons had lowered their weapons, much too interested in what was going on before their very eyes. Was Batwoman really switching sides? Was she really into the Joker?

Not a chance.

“Ohh, I can think of quite a few delicious ways to prove that I’m well worth the investment”. The clown leans in to press his lips against hers, though she stops him, casting a quick glance upwards to see that Bruce was well in position. Joker missed this due to his eyes being closed.

Harley keeps her finger pressed to his lips, and she gently teases along them. “I wanna tell you a secret first”.

“Ohh? Well, you know me Batbabe...I absolutely adore secrets” he chuckles.

Harley licks her lips, excited for the next thing that was about to happen. She leans in towards her ear and lets him feel her breath tickle against his lobe. ‘This is it! This is it! She’s finally mine! After all these years! She’s finally mine!’.

“I. Will. Never. Love. You”.

His face falls but before he could properly react, Harleen tightens her hold around his shoulders and brings up her knee, being at the perfect position to jam it right into his crotch. Joker lets out a rapid exhale of all the breath contained in his lungs and reaches to grip his manhood. 

Harleen wasn’t done though, and as she lets him fall to his knees by back up, she delivers a roundhouse kick right to his temple, knocking him onto the floor fully, but surprisingly not knocking him out.

The Joker’s men had just started to react to the situation when Batman jumps down from above, landing on two of them and dispatching three more with quick and accurate throws of his batarangs. 

Batwoman looks around and notices that they’d actually managed to get them all in one swift go. ‘Ohh wait, nope! Two more’.

She sees them sneaking around to try and get a fix on the vigilantes, though her batclaw fired from one hand and a batarang from the other disarm’s one and grapples the other. She smiles at seeing the claw latch onto the man’s shirt, and with a flip of one of the switches, the batclaw turns into a very effective taser.

The man writhes as the shock hits him, and quickly falls to the ground. While the other simply throws his hands up in surrender before dropping to his knees. 

“Good choice” Batwoman says, retracting the batclaw and replacing it on her belt. Batman is quickly behind her and she turns, a wry smile on her face. “Pretty good wasn’t I?”

“Hmm”.

“Aww don’t be like that” she says, her smile dropping as she walks up towards him. It quickly returns though and she nuzzles his chest. “Don’t be jealous, even if it is cute. You’re my puddin’ and you always will be”.

“I know it was an act Batwoman”.

His hands move to her waist, and he leans down to press his lips against hers. Neither were ever worried about secrecy when it came to the Batman and Batwoman being together as most always assumed they were. Bruce had, at first, been completely adverse to public displays of such affection but….how could you deny the mother of your children a kiss when she wanted one?

The crowd of hostages slowly moves to their feet, some cheering on the couple even when they see them locked in such a passionate embrace. The two separate, though they remain very close. “I have a secret for you puddin’”.

“Ohh?”  
  


She leans up against his ear, though it was only through the cowl. She knew he’d hear her perfectly. “I will always love you” she says.

Bruce smiles, only the barest of smiles though. He still had a reputation to uphold when in the batsuit.

The two are interrupted by the doors slamming open behind them, and they turn, still locked in each other’s arms, to see three goons with light machine guns standing there. They wore heavy armor, kevlar vests and the like, and all were colored to match the Joker.

“Games over Bat freaks!”

They didn’t have a second, even a nanosecond, to act.

Right as they were going to open fire a mist of white overtakes them, covering the entire entrance to the room. It takes a moment to clear, and it brings to mind the swirling of a snowstorm as it does, but when their visibility is restores it’s shown that the men were now encased, still standing with their guns, within a massive block of Ice.

“Woah, damn girl”.

Two women quickly enter from either side, one dressed in a form fitting yellow unitard that was slit up the middle to expose a generous portion of her breasts, while the other wore a one piece full body blue suit with a white top on over it.

“Beklager” the white haired woman says shyly. “Was that...for mye? Too much?”

“Not at all. It was awesome!” the black woman shouts, holding her hand up for a high five. The other woman giggles and slowly returns the motion. The women in yellow turns and smiles at the bat couple whose hands were still on each other’s waist.

“Ohh, sorry are we interrupting something? I know three is a crowd but four is a bummer”.

The two separate and Bruce walks forward, not knowing what was waiting for them with these two new figures. “Who are you?”

“Ahh right, right. Names Vixen!” she says, holding her hand out to shake. Batman doesn’t take it, though Harleen steps forward quickly enough to do so. “Sorry, sorry, he’s temperamental and aside from that, I don’t want another woman touching him in anyway” she teases good naturedly, shaking the black woman’s hand firmly.

Vixen smiles and gives Batman an appreciative look. “I don’t blame you. If he wasn’t attached? I might take a swing buuuuut...I believe in fair play. Ohh and this shy but sweet girl over here is Ice”.

“Hallo!” Ice says quietly, kicking idly at a piece of debris.

“Well, hello to you too” Harleen says. “Thanks for saving our butts. That’s totally cool! You’re like that princess from that Disney movie huh?”

Ice laughs and nods. “Ja. I am a princess. Princess Tora Olafsdottir of Nordland”.

Harleen’s eyes go wide at that. “Ohh wow, a genuine princess”.

Vixen just slaps her face, smiles and shakes her head. “Tora sweetie...she meant that you reminded her of Elsa from Frozen”.

The white haired woman’s smile falls. “Ohh...jeg beklager. I am not...how would you say...aware of this film, though I do kjaerlighet the films of Mr. Disney!”

Harleen already liked the two women. “Well maybe we’ll watch one later but for now? What are you two doing here?”

“Right, right” Vixen says stepping forward. “We’re with Lex’s team, well...your team eventually I guess” she says, noticing how the two seemed to be unaware of what she was saying. “The one he wants you to lead? To beat Superman?”

Bruce nods, deciding it was best to go along with it, and Harleen? Well, she would let Bruce fill her in more later. “When you went dark, he figured you’d be here. Something big is happening in the city and something tells me these goons are involved in whatever it is”.

“What happened in the city?”

“A gas attack. A lot of people are dead. Two more of our team are on it”.

“Hawkman will help very much I’m sure!” Tora butts in before blushing and looking away. Vixen turns and smirks, gesturing to her Norwegian friend. “She has a crush on Hawkman. Like a serious one. Anyways, yeah, him and Constantine are on damage control but we could use your help”.

“We’re on it” Harleen says before looking around. “But uhh...first? We need to collect ourselves”.

“What about him?” Vixen asks, gesturing towards the Joker who was now trying to get up off of the floor. “He’s involved in this no doubt. Probably a major player. Whenever something goes down in this filthy city he usually is some cause of it” Harleen snarls.

“Batman! Ohh….I was...late”.

Katana enters the room and surveys the damage, looking about with only the barest minimum of interest until her eyes land on Vixen and Tora. Her hand goes to the handle of her sheathed blade and she looks towards Batman, waiting for his order. 

He shakes his head no and she nods, acquiescing. 

“Wow, meeting a lot of people today” Vixen says. “Who are you?”

“Katana. A senshi dedicated to fighting the battles of my Shogun”.

“Annnnnd...who is your Shogun?” Vixen asks curiously, watching as the woman gestures towards Batman. “Of course”.

Bruce looks over the scene and knows that they had to act quickly. They had to reappear as Bruce and Harleen Wayne, safe and sound before getting home and then moving out into the field yet again.

He didn’t have time to interrogate the Joker right now, and the last thing he wanted to do was even look at him.

“We have to go. Prepare ourselves and our allies for what’s coming” he says ominously, knowing that this was big. ‘We need to get back to the cave’.

“Alright but what about him?” Vixen asks as the two bats turn and move towards the rear of the hall. “Aren’t you going to do the scary interrogation thing on him or something?”

Batman stops and turns to Katana, a wry smile that was very uncharacteristic on his lips. “Katana” he begins, gaining the woman’s attention. “Make him talk”.

The two then turn the corner and disappear, making their way back to the cave that was positioned on the island. The Japanese woman bows and draws her sword, moving towards the wounded clown who notices her approach. “Hai Shogun”.

“Woah woah, you ain’t gonna kill him are you?” Vixen asks nervously, her own trepidation mirrored on Tora’s face. “Because we aren’t about that”.

Katana spares them a look and quirks her eyebrows, watching as fear, something even the Joker as insane as he was was wise to have of her, clouds his eyes.

She picks him up and slams him against the wall, her sword travelling up and down his leg. “Bango” she says, telling them that she wasn’t going to kill the man despite the swords whispered desires for her to do so.

She smiles sickly and Joker gulps, at once at a loss for words or a snide comeback or insult. “There are many ways to make a man speak without taking his life. I have found that gelding is very effective”.

For once….the Joker didn’t find the joke particularly funny.

The three women that surrounded him though? Each one of them found it absolutely hilarious.


	15. Chapter 15

**_Wayne Manor_ **

Jason was able to combine his training with the weapon with ease. It was like he had been born with it in his hands and that it was merely an extension of his body. It was natural, right and he couldn’t find any reason why he should ever think of putting it down.

“Kill him! Kill the freak with the sword!”

One of the few that remained attempts to raise his rifle at the boy’s back, but he was much quicker than them. He brings the sword up and out, cutting through the steel and wood of the weapon like a hot knife through butter.

_ “Pathetic weapons”. _

Barbara was perplexed, but not so perplexed that she wouldn’t join the battle, especially if it meant helping out her boyfriend. She felt guilty now that she feels a certain degree of lucidity return to her. She was willing to abandon her family here at the manor to go after her mother. She tries to console herself that it wasn’t an intentional abandonment but instead came about due to her tunnel vision.

Still, she was ashamed.

‘Fuck you Barbara. You caused all of this!’.

Her rage is the fuel to her action, and she jumps down off of the column she’d been busily climbing to dispatch one of the thugs on the first floor that had all but lost interest in her once Jason appeared on the battlefield.

  
She uses the now prone and unconscious man to stop her fall and then roll forward to deliver a leg sweep that knocks yet another thug off of his feet. She wastes no time in move upwards and bringing her fist down on his face to deliver a knockout punch.

She needed to get to Jason.

“My word. We...we have to help...ahhh”.

Alfred and Elise, watching from above, had no idea what to do and all they could think of was to try and provide fire support. Alfred had made to get up, but the wound in his shoulder, as nonlethal as it was, was still debilitating.

“Alfred baby stay down” Elise says, rushing up to ensure that the man didn’t move from his prone position. “Blast…”.

The older blonde was looking out over the battle raging below her, and she was a mixture of impressed and frightened by Jason’s skill. “I...I actually don’t think they need our help sweetie”. Just at that moment, Barbara delivers a flying roundhouse kick that throws a man back at least six feet.

The two teenage crime fighters stop to look at each other, feeling a rush as they take a second to catch their breath. Despite the cauldron of rage boiling beneath her skin, Barbara couldn’t help but admire the boy and his form.

She winks at him, and Jason rolls his eyes, clearing thinking that this was anything but the right time to be flirting.

“Alright, alright. What the hell?”

They turn forward to see both Jester and DeeDee with their rifles aimed at them, supposedly in a good stance to defend themselves.

They’d have to be put off guard.

Jason turns and gestures to Barbara. “Mind if we switch dance partners?”

“Hmm you better keep your hands off her butt”.

The two clowns were unaware of what they were talking about, but it was clear that quick action would be needed if they were going to win the day. The Robins were trained for quick action, every sinew of their body like a coiled spring ready to jump out at a second’s notice. They’d been training for five years after all.

The two clowns? Well, one had spent most of his time in the asylum weight lifting while the other’s only skill was a recently learned proficiency with her ak47.

It wasn’t even a close match.

The two rocket forward but change paths at the last minute to head straight for the opposite opponent, seamlessly folding over each other like waves. Jester and DeeDee were only able to get a single burst out, both of which missed the two vigilantes completely avoided. Before a second burst get get off they were already right in front of them, and it was too late.

Much too late.

Barbara goes for a classic and slams her fist into the boy’s gut, taking his rifle with her other hand and letting the clip fall out before blasting the final chambered round out the window. It then became a highly effective bludgeon as it falls across the boy’s face.

  
Jester falls to the ground, his cheek cut open and many of his teeth knocked out. Barbara keeps hold of the rifle for a moment before tossing it away, knowing that her fists and feet would be a good enough weapon for interrogation uses.

Jason was much more methodical about taking out the DeeDee. He swept his leg out, knocked her off his her feet and sliced the rifle in half before using the pommel to knock her out, applying just enough force to her forehead without cracking her skull or causing brain damage. She’d have a mean headache, but she would live.

Jester was just about to get up when Barbara slams her foot down upon his chest, causing him no light amount of pain. He winches and gasps out in pain, his hands going to her ankle to try and get her off of him. Barbara was much too strong though, even for him.

“WHERE IS SHE?”   
  


“Who? Where’s who?”   
  


“Barbara Gordon”.

Jester was confused by this. “You’re Barbara Gordon and...unnf, where the hell did you two learn how to fight like tha...owwww”.

Barbara increases the pressure of her foot upon his chest cavity, bringing a level of clarity to the boy who somehow knew that she wasn’t joking.

He lets out a sinister smile. “Ahh you’re talking about Deacon Blackfire’s babe” he teases, licking his lips as it occurs to him. “Ohhh! You’re her daughter! That’s right. That’s right. I can see it. You look a lot like her. Minus the killer rack of course”.

Barbara narrows her eyes and leans down, her lips curled back in anger. “I won’t ask again. Where are they?”

He just smiles.

“Like I’d tell you. You’ll just wind up putting me and my pops away if I do…”.

“I’ll be doing a lot worse if you don’t” she says, fully meaning it. Jason was worried, but he didn’t let it show. He just keeps a firm grip on his sword, ready to intervene and save Barbara from her own mistake if she was about to make one.

“Aww you gonna kill me? Like your mama killed your pops?”   
  


“Wait a minute Barbara” Jason says, drawing her attention away from what would undoubtedly be the spark that would lead to the boy’s death. “Everybody has a weak spot. I wonder….”.

The swords flame’s which had begun to simmer only slightly, reignite intensely, and Jason brings it to a few inches away from DeeDee’s throat. She begins to wake up, the heat prompting a survival response in her body. As her eyes flutter open, she recoils in horror at what she sees. 

At first she tries to scuttle away, though she’s prevented by her back being pressed against the wall. “Jester…” she cries out, tears in her eyes at the fear of dying.

At first, Barbara assumes that the boy would be just like Joker, out only for himself and uncaring of those around him, but the flicker of fear in his eyes, not for himself but for Dee Dee, gives it away. She looks at Jason and nods. ‘You smart son of a bitch’.

“Maybe you want to talk now Jester? Tell us about Blackfire’s secret hiding spot?”

“Pfft, why would I care if you kill her?” he asks, trying to play it off but failing miserably. Dee Dee’s eyes widen even more and she begins to cry. “Jester please! I love you you bastard!”

“Did you hear that Barbara?” Jason asks, deciding to play a game. “Jester doesn’t care. Should I shishkebab her or give her a haircut? Parted down the middle of course?”

“Hmm, whatever you want Jay. Personally? I hate that green hair of hers. I think she needs a makeover”.

Jason raises the sword behind his head and prepares to bring it down right atop the woman, indeed splitting her in half. “WAIT! WAIT! FUCK, dammit I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you!”.

Jason lowers the sword and turns to the younger man, reaching out with his fist to knock Dee Dee out once again, who was too busy crying and looking out lovingly at her boyfriend to notice the fist coming towards her. Jester winces and glares up at Jason. “You didn’t have to do that!”

“Shut the fuck up about what we have to do and start talking”.

He glares balefully up at Barbara, his eyes filled with an urge to kill her. Then again...sending her where she wanted to go? That would most likely kill her too.

  
The realization of this fact puts a smile on the clown’s face and he decides to be much more cooperative.

“They’re downtown” he explains. “Launching their little gas attack with Scarecrow”.

“Scarecrow is dead” Jason says. “Burned in a fire at Arkham last month”.

“Hehehe is that what you think? If so, we’ve succeeded”.

“Downtown..where?”

“Hehehehee”.

“Where?!”

She grasps him by the collar of his shirt and shakes him, glaring daggers at the young man. “Well they’re probably not downtown anymore” he explains. “Their men are and Scarecrow too but old bit tits and Blackfire? They’re most likely back at Ace Chemicals. Easy access to the sewers too...hehehehe, they wanna let their troops do all the dirty work before they come back up”.

The boy begins to laugh again but he’s prevented from getting to far along with it by Barbara knocking him out. As his limp body falls back against the floor, she turns to Jason.

“We need to get to the cave and suit up..”.

“Miss Barbara, I absolutely forbid it!”

  
Alfred and Elise had started to make their way down the stairs, the wounded butler leaning on his girlfriend for her support. “We have to get into the safe room until your parents return sweetheart”.

“Nana, we don’t have time!” Barbara shouts out exasperatedly.

“I can’t lose her. I might never get another shot”.

“And you’re not going after her alone!” Elise says, refusing to budge and allow her granddaughter out there alone. She softens though at seeing her granddaughter’s destroyed expression and she moves the duo closer. “Sweetie...I love you. I wanna rip her fucking guts out too for trying to kill you and what she did to your dad” Elise explains.

“But you’ve got a family too. One you’ve gotta look out for. Martha, Mary, your mom and dad, even Jason” she says, gesturing towards the boy who was standing beside her. She searched his eyes for help, and all Jason did was nod. 

“I…”.

She lowers her head and shakes it, not knowing what to do. “Miss Wayne…” Alfred says, drawing the redhead’s attention to him. “Please...come with us to the safe room. I’m sure once your father gets back here you will both go out and give them a jolly good thrashing like the one that you two gave here”.

She feels her spirit buoyed a bit by that, and reluctantly she looks back toward Jason. He moves towards her and wraps his arms around her to crush her body into his. “I always have your back”.

She tightens her own grip on the boy and sighs, knowing what she had to do. “Alright Al, you’ve convinced me. Let’s get our asses to the safety bunker”. She moves to Alfred’s other side, pressing his unoccupied arm over her shoulder to assist him alongside Elise. “I am merely injured, not crippled”.

  
“Shut up Al you big hero you”.

“Nana be nice to the butler” Barbara chides.

Jason follows along slowly behind, still holding his sword. Most of the goons had either fled or been completely incapacitated at this point, though he was sure they should tie them up. ‘No. We don’t have time’.

He enters the kitchen and sees that the safe room door was still open. Alfred and Elise had been moved inside with the help of Barbara. “I’ll be right back” the redhead calls from the door. “I have to get some gauze for Alfred”.

Elise was setting the man down on the medical gurney contained within and doesn’t think much of the young girl’s words. “Alright sweetie...wait...we have gauze in…”.

Before the words are out, Barbara has slammed the door shut on the two, and she turns to Jason, passing him a mild look. The two jump into action and grab each side of the table within, sliding it until it’s wedged up against the bunker door.

“Barbara! Jason! What the hell do you two think you’re doing?!” 

Elise’s shouts were muffled but they could hear them clearly, even from the opposite side of the door. “I’m sorry Alfred, Nana. But...I can’t let this go. I love you”. 

She kisses her hand and presses it against the door, blushing at herself for such an open display of affection.

“Sweetie! No! Don’t! You can’t do this alone!”

Barbara moves away from the door and towards Jason. “I’m not alone...am I?”

Jason shakes his head to the negative. 

“No. You’re not”.

Barbara smiles wide and kisses the boy before both rush out of the kitchen and make a beeline for the grandfather clock that sealed the entrance to the cave.

“Alright, let’s suit up and get to Ace chemicals. We have a chance to stop whatever is going on” Jason says, slamming the entrance shut behind them. “How are we going to get there though?” she asks.

“The R cycle is still busted from when we tried to do that jump across Gotham Brige”.

“We?”

“Alright well...me”.

Jason smirks to himself despite the intensity of the situation. ‘Leave it to Babs to lighten the mood’.

“Well...Uncle Vic isn’t using the Mustang”.

Babs’ eyes widen and her hand goes to her mouth as they make it to the bottom level of the cave. “He’ll absolutely fucking kill us”.

“Well, let’s just focus on getting to that point” the boy explains, putting down the sword for a moment to take off his shirt. “Let’s just get dressed and get ready to go. Mom and dad are probably on their way back, and so is Uncle Vic and Aunt Dinah”.

“I’ll get the gasmasks”.

“Yeah...that’s a good idea”.

**_Mayoral Mansion Safe Room_ **

Harvey was leading Pam by the arm down the stairs and into the basement, while his other held Harleen’s hand to drag the crying girl along. “Harvey! What’s going on?! You’re scaring me!”

“Pamela, we don’t have time to explain, I just need you safe alright?”.

The mansion was practically ancient, having been in use since the Mansion was built in the 1640’s, though back then it had belonged to the British governor of the colony of New Jersey. After the revolution it fell into the hands of the continental congress and ever since had served as the residence of the Mayor of Gotham City.

He turns a corner and moves down one of the drafty and dismal halls that line the basement, leading her to a vault like door. A fallout shelter built into the ancient stone during the height of the cold war. Then it was designed for atomic bombs but now it was going to ensure that his wife was safe.

“Mayor Dent?”

A voice interrupts his flight and he turns to see two figures at the bottom of the stairway, apparently having followed him. 

They looked like private security, being dressed in black suits and wearing sunglasses but he had never seen them before. He stops to move his wife and daughter behind him. “Pamela, Harleen….stay behind me”.

“Relax sir” one of the men says while stepping forward. “We’re with Mr. Luthor. He’s sent us to ensure that you stay in the bunker until the all clear is given”.

The man produces a Lexcorp identification card, providing a fair amount of proof that his claim was at least legit.

“And what does he expect me to do from this bunker?” he asks with a grimace.

“Nothing sir. There’s nothing you can do at the moment. The city is overrun and his team is working on taking control back” the man explains. “You and your wife and daughter need to be kept safe. That’s why we’re here”.

Crying suddenly breaks the air, though it was being kept intentionally quiet. He turns to see that Harleen had started to tear up, but was muffling the sound with her hands. “Ohh sweetie...what’s wrong? What’s wrong?” Pamela asks, cuddling her into her side. “I...I’m...I’m scared. Is our family...okay?”

“Sweetie they’re fine I know it” Harvey says, moving forward to pick her up in his arms, knowing that she needed to be held. The little girl cuddles into him, and her sobs grow louder as it was clear she didn’t believe him. Not with everything going on.

Harvey felt powerless, despite being the Mayor. He was unable to do anything to soothe his daughter, let alone the bleeding city. He turns back to the men while he continues to rub his daughter’s back.

“Alright...I guess we don’t have a choice”.

The guards nod and move forward, escorting the family into the vault as one moves to open the door. When they all step inside he closes it behind him and locks it. Nobody was getting in, if anyone would even bother. 

Harvey sits his daughter on the bed within the room and smiles at her while moving to his knees. “Hey...princess...you’re being very brave for your mommy and I. We’re so proud of you”.

She shakes her head morosely.

“I’m not brave. I cried”.

“Ohh sweetie. Tears don’t mean you’re not brave. It just means you care. You’re afraid for your family. I understand but I want you to know that they’re fine okay?” he says, looking around to ensure that the guards weren’t listening. They were on their phones, most likely confirming that they had secured the future president of Gotham.

“Uncle Bruce and Uncle Vic and the rest are going to go kick some butt okay?”

She nods, remembering exactly WHO her family was. “They ain’t taking this lying down and neither are you so just keep being brave sweetie. Your mommy and I need you to protect us okay?”

“Okay” she sniffles.    
  
A kiss is quickly pressed to her forehead by her father, and his hand brushes through her red locks. 

Pamela was moving to sit down behind her when suddenly her eyes go wide. She looks down at her belly and shakes her head. “Ohh no...not now little girl”.

Suddenly she feels the wetness between her legs, and some of it seeps out onto the chair. “Harvey…”

“Yeah sweetie?”

“The baby is coming”.

“Ohh shit...I mean...I’m sorry sweetie don’t listen to my bad language” the mayor says to Harleen before moving towards his wife. “Are you sure?”

She smiles tightly, holding her stomach. “Yeah I’m sure”.

“Jeez...ohh no” he says, looking around to try and squash the panic that was welling up within him. “Sir...problem?” one of the guards asks, moving up towards him.    
  
Harvey doesn’t answer for the moment and instead just picks up his wife and moves her over to one of the beds. “I’m amazed you were able to do that” Pam moans, letting the man position her as best as he could. He props her back up with pillows and works on keeping her head up.

“I’ll always be able to carry my wife” he says while brushing his hand across her forehead. He turns to the guard and works on telling him what the problem was.

“My wife is going into labor”.

The man’s eyes widen. “Ohh no”.

“Yeah, ohh no, and we’re fucking locked in here!”

“Calm down sir...I have medical training”.

“Ohh you do now? Well, aren’t we just lucky?”

Pam reaches out to take Harvey’s hand. “Sweetie...I’m the one...unnng giving birth so maybe, just maybe? Keep it together?”

“Ohh right, sorry baby...sorry”.

“Dadd? Is mommy alright?” Harleen calls from across the room, still seated upon the bed. “Mommy is fine sweetie!” Pamela supplies. “Just...ohhh, your little sis is coming”.

“Really?” 

“Uhhmmm...ohhhh...she’ll be here soon...very soon I hope” she grunts out, the contractions beginning early with her as well. “Ma’am, just stay calm…”.

“Relax kiddo” she says, making fun of the guard’s apparent youth. She was panting and sweating, but steady as any woman could be. “This ain’t my first rodeo”.

Harvey reaches out and takes the woman’s hand in his own, cradling her as close as he could. “It’ll be alright sweetie. I promise”.

“Yeah, we’re gonna have our second daughter in a fallout shelter while the city above us is burning to the ground. Everything’s going to be perfect” she exclaims, throwing her head back onto the pillow and writhing just a bit.

“Go get the medical kit and some water!” Harvey shouts to the other guard, pointing to the opposite side of the room. Luckily the man was quick on his feet, otherwise Harvey would’ve lost it. None of this was optimum, and it was all frightening.

Still...he had to be there for his family, and in order to be there he had to hold it together. No matter what. 

Gotham could wait.

His little girl was coming to town.

**_The Road to Wayne Manor_ **

He was driving as fast as he could, having already gotten word from Katana, due to her effective questioning of the Joker, that another force had been sent to the manor. He hadn’t been able to raise Alfred, and that was the most worrying of all things.

Luckily they’d talked to Dinah and found that she, Vic and the kids were all safe. For now, he told them to get out of Gotham with the children. They needed to be safe first and foremost, and regardless of how Vic and Dinah wanted to fight back? The kids came first.

“Puddin’ calm down” Harleen tries to soothe the man despite her own worry. “With Alfred and my mom there, they’ll have the situation under control. Trust me!”

He doesn’t respond and instead keeps his eyes focused on the manor that lay at the top of the hill, almost tantalizingly out of reach. He knew that his children were possibly in trouble and that was the only thing he could think about at the moment. He swerves the car into the driveway, parking right in front of the steps to the house and not even turning the car off as he jumps out into the driveway.

Harleen was being just as quick, unable to hide her nervousness either as she slides across the hood. “Alfred!”

“Mama! Jason! Barbara!”

They enter into the house through the door which was still blasted open, their first hint that something was horribly wrong. When they look around they see the Joker’s goons all tied up and bound, ready for transport into police custody.

“Alfred! Anyone! Jason Barbara!” Bruce shouts out, not hearing anything.

He makes to head upstairs before Harleen stops him. “Puddin’ let’s check the safe room first” she says, grabbing his arm.

The two rush into the kitchen and see the table pushed up against where the safe room is and they shout out inside. “Alfred! Elise? Are you in there?!”

“Yes we’re blood well trapped!”

“Alfred’s irritated at something” Harleen teases out as each go to one side of the table and pull it away from its position where it was blocking the door. “Someone put a table up against the door guys!” Harleen shouts as the door is pushed open from inside. 

  
“I know” Elise says, helping the butler out of the safe room. He was bandaged now and cleaned up as best as his girlfriend could manage. “Alfred, what happened?” Bruce asks, taking over the job of assisting the man over to another seat.

The butler sets himself down and groans, his hand coming up to his bandaged shoulder while Elise looks down and cries, moving her hands up to prevent anyone from seeing her tears. “Mama, what’s wrong?”    
  


Harleen rushes to her side and places her arm around the woman’s shoulder, pulling her into her body.

“They’re gone”.

“Who is?” Bruce asks, knowing that Alfred would be able to fill in the blanks. “The manor was attacked Master Bruce. By Dick Grayson”.

“Jester” Harleen says sadly, once more reminded of her failure to save the boy. She thought she had seen him amongst the tied up goons outside.

“What happened?”

“Well, Elise and I tried to fight them off…” Alfred begins to relay the story. “I was wounded, and then...young Master Jason and Miss Barbara came out to assist. Apparently Jester was sent to kill any members of the Wayne family he could find. But...Master Bruce...Jason and Barbara...they stopped them”.

“Our babies are well trained…”.

“No Mrs. Wayne. No. Jason...he took the sword you found in that old tomb and….something happened”.

“What?”

The butler shakes his head, unsure of how to even explain it. “I don’t know what to say. There was this...apparition behind him. A knight on a flaming stead. Even the sword Bruce, it was on fire. He just tore through them”.

Harleen’s eyes were wide in shock and horror. “My God...did he kill anyone?”

“Heavens no, no. Jason merely disarmed them but then the voice...it spoke and it called him Azrael”.

Bruce doesn’t know what to make of it either, but he did know who Azrael was. “The Angel of death”.

“Where are they now?”

“I don’t know exactly” Alfred says. “The last we saw of them, they were tricking us into the safe room. Barbara found out that this attack was planned and ordered by her mother and Deacon Blackfire. They interrogated the Jester and then Barbara wished to leave. I didn’t hear what was said but they acquiesced to Elise and I’s demands that we get to the safe room. Or so we thought. Next we knew, we were locked in here”.

Elise turns in Harleen’s arms and reaches up for her daughter’s face. “Sweetie. I’m so sorry. I tried. I tried to protect your babies but...but…”.

“Shh mama this isn’t your fault” she explains. “We raised them to be heroes and then tried to cage them. If anything this is our fault”.

“They have trackers on them” Bruce says suddenly.

“What? When did you do that?” Harleen asks.

“Just after they came to us” he explains while moving towards the door. “Alfred, are you okay?”

“Yes Master Bruce, fit as a fiddle and ready…”.

“No, stay here” Bruce says. “I would recommend staying away from hospitals for a little while. The gas attacks have undoubtedly knocked a few of them out of commission and the rest are probably too backed up to be of any help”.

“I’ve got him patched up nicely. Even got the bullet out too. Wound is cleaned, stitched and bandaged. You should be fine honey bun”.

Alfred takes the woman’s hand and kisses it, wanting to calm her during what was undoubtedly a very tough situation for her. “My personal little combat medic”.

  
Elise leans down to kiss his forehead, happy that he was safe and unharmed. “Harleen, we’re going after them”.

The blonde doesn’t even say goodbye to the elder couple before following her husband to the clock, walking down the stairs and leaving it to be sealed by those who remained upstairs. “Wait, I see the batmobile” Harleen says as they make it down the stairs.

“How did they get out...ohh...ohh no. Vic is going to kill them”.

She goes wide eyed at the fact of the blue Mustang being gone, though Bruce was naturally much less caring. He was already slipping into his suit, and had his utility belt on. “Just as long as we get to them before they get to Blackfire, he can do whatever he wants”.

The man was angry, so was she.

But she also understood. 

She placed herself in Barbara’s shoes and asked what she would’ve done had her mother been murdered by her father, and now she had an opportunity to get revenge?

She knew that the answer would be from her end on that one. She also wanted to put herself in Jason’s shoes, and she asked what she would do if Bruce had the chance to go after Joe Chill. She’d help him in a heartbeat, and slam her mother and Alfred into a safe room one hundred percent of the time. 

She slips out of her pants and into the suit, being just as quick as Bruce at this point. Her own mind takes a bit of a dark turn and she thinks about how Barbara’s mother had tried to have her killed. Her own daughter.

‘No’ she corrects herself while slipping on the cowl. ‘Not her daughter. MY daughter’.

She turns and rushes towards the batmobile, jumping right in beside Bruce as he starts the engine. Harleen feels that her heart was set in grim determination, not to take down the cult that had long been underground, but to save Barbara.

‘She’d going there to kill her. If she does? She’ll be killing herself. No. You need to be there for her Harleeen. Save your baby girl from herself’.

Bruce was quiet, but the same thoughts were on his mind. The wild card in all of this was Jason unfortunately. 

What was Jason planning?   
  
Would he help her kill? Or would he pull her back from the brink?

As the batmobile roared out of the cave, he could only hope that it was the second.

**_Ace Chemicals_ **

“Alright, masks on”.

The two take a moment to attach the breathing apparatus to the uncovered lower portions of their mouths, the parts not hidden by their mask.

As soon as they were adequately covered, the two young vigilantes exit the car and cast a quick glance around. The gas was pungent, and thick, especially in this area. They’d seen the damage it had wrought so far on their way through the almost abandoned Gotham streets.

Bodies littered every street corner, and there were even groups of people, their faces twisted into horrific grins and smiles, fighting with one another. They couldn’t stop to help though they each knew that there was not much of a point left in trying to help. What could they really do? Nothing. That was the answer. There was nothing they could do. 

“Barbara, can you hear me?”   
  


Jason had flipped on the comm link that each of them wore in their ear piece, allowing them to communicate through the mask. “Yeah. I can”.

“Alright, just listen to me alright? We take this slow and do it right. Sweep every corner. We don’t need any surprises. Odds are the cultists are still out here and if they planned this as deeply as it looks like they did, then they’re going to be ready to fight”.

“Got it. Stop squawking Robin”.

Jason smiles though she doesn’t see it, the smile being obstructed by the breathing mask and she being much too focused on his back to notice anyways. She needed to keep an eye on his figure as he moved through the mist towards the entrance to the abandoned chemical factory.    
  
After what felt like a century of walking, they reach the front door, and Jason reaches forward to open it. “Alright, it’s clearer in here, but keep your mask on. Probably vapors”.

He enters first, the sword drawn out before him.    
  
It wasn’t aflame at the moment, and that was something that made him curious. ‘If only it was’ he thinks. ‘It would make getting through this stuff a whole lot easier’.

At his very thought, the flame illuminates itself and bursts, showcasing a way forward for them.

‘Wow...that’s pretty cool’.

“Woah, how’d you turn that thing on anyway?” Barbara asks, following close behind. “I uhh...kind of just thought about it” the boy responds.

“Ahh”.

The two move along in a bit of silence, though it was clear that something was on the girl’s mind. “So...uhh...we gonna talk about the whole creepy ghost knight thing and the flaming sword?”

“Do you really think now is a good time for that?”

“No…”.

“Good. Me neither. Let’s focus on finding your mother for now huh?”

At the mention of her mother, Barbara becomes instantly refocused on the mission. She hadn’t seen her in six years, not since her father had been so viciously killed in that diner, right before her eyes. Much had happened since then, and in many ways she was lucky.

Still...she couldn’t get the image out of her head.

She’d thought about it for years, every day practically. It was one of the major things that drove her forward to excelling at being a vigilante. She had a recurring dream. One night, she’d go out on patrol, alone which was unusual. But this would be a very unusual night.

She’d see a woman walking in an alley below her, a woman that was instantly recognizable. She’d jump down to confront her and push back the hood she wore to cover her features. When she did, she’d see her mother, cowering before her.

The older Barbara would fall to the ground in fear, knowing that whatever was going to happen to her was punishment for what she did to James Gordon, but she wouldn’t know who was delivering this justice.

Barbara would pull back her mask, and let her see her daughter’s face, one last time. In fact, Barbara hoped that it would be the very last face she ever saw.

Even now she was spurred onwards by this dream.

The dream of seeing fear in her mother’s eyes.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So...just want to warn you. This chapter is very tense. Mentions of noncon at the beginning.

**_Vinland, 873 A.D_ **

She had been beaten, but more than that, she’d been subjected to the cruelest tortures that could be met out upon a woman by any man. And Sigurd Loki Born was not just any man. He numbered amongst the most sadistic and cruel.

Still, she maintained a scrap of womanly pride at having refused to break. Even now, bloodied and beaten, dragged down a long scampering tunnel, she knew that Sigurd had failed. She wanted to smile, but her jaw hurt too much.

Even if she did, she wouldn’t have found many teeth left.

“Tell me Harleigha” Sigurd scowls out, following behind the two braves who dropped the wounded woman down into the darkness. “What was it about Leorblak that inspired such loyalty? I’m curious? Was he just massively endowed? Is that it?”

The man stops the duo to kick the blonde in the back, resisting the urge to draw his axe and simply implant it in the back of her skull. He was in a rare rage, a rage that not even the cold blasts of Niflheim could cool. That put her in a better mood.

She chuckles to herself, slowly recovering from the pain. Now? It was her turn.

“While my husband is indeed well endowed, that wasn’t all, though having a cock not littered with the pox is also a boon” she wheezes. “He was a gentle lover in all things. A good man. A leader. He was a fine husband and he would’ve made a fine father”.

  
She slowly turns her head over her shoulder to glare at the man. “Things you will never know of, things you will never experience. You are loathed among the Norse Sigurd Loki spittle. As soon as word gets back to your people…”.

“Hehahahahahaa!” the man laughs uproariously. 

“By whom?” he asks, reaching out and grasping her by the hair to snap her head back. “Whom have I left alive of your wretched clan to tell the story of how Jarl Leorblak died like a coward? No axe in his hand, and no shield maiden to carry him off to the corpse hall?”   
  


She doesn’t have an answer, at least one that she would dare put to words. She knew that there were none left save her and the man who did it himself.

And she doubted that she’d be able to tell anyone of what had transpired very soon.

“Besides, why would I dare travel back to that pesky world of Jarls and kinds, with their drawn out maps and claims and wars when I am my own king here!” he spreads his arms out, gesturing to, at the moment, only the two Miagani braves there.

Harleigha was visibly unimpressed.

Sigurd’s smile drops and he looks down at her one last time. “I am offering you this one last chance” he says. “Submit to me, in spirit, fully. After all, I’ve already had your delectable body”. He takes a moment to run his hand over her breast which was barely hidden beneath the torn rags that were once her robes.

“Be my queen in this new world. Say yes and I…”.

Harleigha reaches out with her chin, a wavering look in her eyes that makes the murderer believe she just might acquiesce. “Sigurd...please...I don’t want to die. Kiss me and I shall come with you” she moans.

“Ahh, so you do have a breaking point?” he asks, a little surprised. It didn’t matter to him though. He takes the risk and leans forward to press his own lips against the woman’s. Harleigha also leans forward, but for much different reasons.

  
With what little remained of her jagged and broken teeth, she bites into his lips, causing the man to scream out in pain and slap her away with a significant amount of force. Harleigha is thrown back onto the dirt floor, though the quick tearing away of the woman only causes more damage.

She laughs and spits some of his flesh out of her mouth onto the dirt. As she lays on her side, she reaches up with the back of hand and wipes the man’s blood away. “HAHAHA! Sigurd Loki Born? Sigurd the Fool is a much more fitting name for thee”.

Sigurd himself was on his knees, grasping the bottom part of his face and moaning out in pain. “Whore…” he mutters to himself. “You bit me!”.

“And drew blood. Every drop belongs to Leorblak. I bit thee in his honor”.

The braves didn’t know what to do at that moment, and they looked at each other before turning back to their leader. They knew that Sigurd’s plans for Harleigha were much more horrifying than simply cleaving her head from her shoulders with a tomahawk. It even made them shudder.

Sigurd slowly moves to his feet, and spreads his hands out across his lips, laughing while using the blood to create an even larger mimicry of a smile. “Oh dear Harleigha...you didn’t bite me in his honor. You bit me...heheh, because you now lack any honor!”.

Her eyes fly open in rage and she attempts to move up quickly to further attack the man. Her broken and bruised body simply didn’t move quick enough, and she was caught between the two warriors again.

“Bastard whoreson!”

  
He grasps her by the throat and begins to choke her, squeezing harshly. “No Harleigha..you are the whore”. The smile was still there, even with his destroyed lips. Now though? The blood provided and absolutely horrifying backdrop. “When you meet your former husband in whatever it be, Helheim or Dubnos or even that prattling monk Sir Jason’s hell, do you think he’ll still want you?”

She beats weakly against his wrists, the warriors that had originally held her now letting go, allowing Sigurd to dangle her in the air. 

He doesn’t take notice of the woman’s gasps for breath, nor does he let up in the slightest as he begins to walk forward with her. “What will he say to a wife whose body was ravaged in every possible way? I know what I would say…”.

“You’re...not...Leorblak!” she seethes out, though there was fear in her eyes at the implications of what the man was saying.

“You’re right. I haven’t been made a cuckold like him”.

Sigurd rushes them forward into a dark opening at the end of the tunnel, and as soon as they enter, he throws her to the floor. He quickly grasps a torch out of the warrior nearest to him’s hands, placing it into a holder on the wall.

“Welcome to your new home Harleigha” Sigurd laughs from the door frame. “Hehehe, we hope you enjoy it. Down here, you won’t even be able to hear Ragnarok when it comes. Remember me when you realize just how big of a mistake you made in choosing your husband’s cold bed in place of my warm on. Hahaha”.

She slowly moves to her feet, though it was just in time to see the three men shift a massive stone in front of the entrance. The light that was left from the other side turns into a crack before disappearing completely, the door now sealed in place, indeed for what would undoubtedly be eternity.

She cries softly to herself, wrapping her arms about her midsection as the torch continues to flicker, giving her a glimpse of her surroundings. 

What she sees, truly was a bit shocking. 

Grave goods, all of which she recognizes. Leorblak’s prized axe and her broach were nestled together in a corner alcove. As she looked on further and further more and more items that were hers and her husband’s popped out at her. 

It’s then that she sees it.

The sarcophagus. 

She inhales deeply and gasps, hurting herself in the process but barely noticing. “Leorblak…”.

Sigurd had buried him as a Jarl, though from how tucked away and relatively sparse the tomb was, it was more of a mockery to the man than anything else. She rushes to the side of his resting place and lays her head upon the cold stone, gently caressing his visage which had been cut into the slab of rock. This she knew was from the village, one of the elders having wanted to make this for their Jarl in advance as he knew that his own time was coming soon.

“Ohh...beloved. My husband” she sobs out. “I am so sorry. I have been dishonored by that wretch. That horrid son of Balor!”

She returns to her sobs, unable to contain them. “Forgive me please. Look not upon my tattered and stained womanhood, and only upon my love for you”. She slowly begins to push the lid open, knowing that she would find the corpse of her husband within. She is not disappointed, and due to the cold it seemed that he hadn’t begun to rot already.

Good. 

  
She would do what her heart now required of her regardless, but the fact of his flesh not rotting made it truly easier. She reaches down to kiss his brow, whispering words into unhearing ears. “My love...let me join you in death. I shall walk forever through whatever realm we find ourselves in with you. I will freeze gladly in Niflheim, have my flesh flayed in Helheim, or burn until Ragnarok in Muspelheim if only it is within your arms”.

She moves away for a moment and advances upon a wall to the far right. Drawing his axe from the alcove she slits the blade up her wrists, wincing at the pain she feels as her flesh is opened and her blood gushes out. She had to act quickly as she could already feel the cold embrace of Hela, Loki’s daughter and ruler of the dead, grasping her. 

She dips her fingers into her wound, and begins to write upon the wall, invoking the spirits of her ancestors and of her land to revenge herself upon Sigurd or his children.

The runes and spell, her dark seidr brought forth by love, was cast quickly, and she retreats to the coffin. Gingerly she reaches her leg up and over the side, moving atop her husband in a mimicry of how they would sleep in life. She grasps the edge of the lid and pulls it into place, allowing gravity to bring it the rest of the way.

She was now sealed in darkness, but she did not fear, nor despair. She felt the cold mass next to her with all the familiarity she had always had with him. Melding herself into the corpse’s side, she splays her arms out over the man and awaits her own death.

“I never truly told you in life my lover…” she whispers. “How rich a woman you made me. Not in gold, nor silver, though we had as much as we needed. No. In friends, in love. I have no regrets Leorblak Wainsson. Well, perhaps…” she whispers, slowly losing consciousness as her blood seeps out over the man. “I wish...I could’ve given you children. We waited too long my love...assuming we had...many moons left….”.

She gives out a shaky breath and smiles one final time, her eyes closing as she nestles into the area where his neck and shoulder met. “I am even richer now...I die...beside you…”.

Harleigha lets out one final breath, her chest rising and falling no more.

The torch that was lit outside of the sarcophagus slowly begins to dim until it dies completely as well, not even the embers remaining for long. The tomb was silent, and would remain so for over one hundred years….

When it was disturbed by an old friend who came to pay his respects, and deposit something within the grave.

When he opened the lid, despite the sadness he had felt upon losing his dearest friends in the world, he couldn’t help but smile at the skeletons, locked together in an embrace as they had been in life.

Harleigha and Leorblak would indeed be together forever.

**_Downtown Gotham_ **

The figure stood atop a building, dragging intently on a cigarette as he gazes at the streets below. The mist still filled them, and he couldn’t see much. But the sounds? The sounds gave away the horror that was going on below.

“Th...than...than…”.

“Don’t mention it love”.

Behind him sat a group of people, all huddled together, clutching at their loved ones. He didn’t want to hear their thanks. Not now. Instead he reaches into the pocket of his trench coat and retracts his cell phone, dialing up the man who had sent him and his compatriot here.

He didn’t spare the woman who had tried to speak to him another thought, not for the moment. They were safe up here, where the gas couldn’t seem to penetrate. Still, the shield charm that he cast over the roof was an added protection.

“Lex...you hearin’ me mate?”

“Constantine...I’m getting reports…”.

“And they ain’t nowhere near the truth of how shite things are out here” the man says evenly before sighing and grasping his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “I’m sorry just...yeah, it’s pretty bad out here”.

Lex was silent for a moment, considering his next words.

  
“Did you manage to save anyone?”

“A few people yeah but the rest? They’re all too far gone or dead. Tearing each other’s bleedin’ eyes out. Saw mums turn on their children, wicked smiles on their faces”. He was fuming and trying to keep his cool, but that was rapidly failing him.

“Any sign of the culprit?”

“Not yet. Ain’t seen no guy on the yellow brick road quite yet”.

“Scarecrow is undoubtedly around there somewhere. And what about Hawkman?”

Before John could answer the sound of beating wings emanates from below and a shape bursts out from the mist. “Speak of the arsehole and he appears…” John says into the phone.

Carter lands on the roof, two shapes huddled in each of his arms. When he opens them, two wide eyed and frightened children step out and look around, the rags that they’d pressed to their mouths fall away.

Carter stands and looks at John, looking every bit the menacing Thanagarian warrior that he was in inside. His mace was clutched within his right hand, and it was clear that it had been used, most likely in defense of the two children he’s saved. 

With one hand he reaches up and removes the breathing apparatus from his mouth, continuing to glare at Constantine. “I heard that”.

“Of course you did you twat. I wanted you to…”.

The Thanagarian wasn’t listening, and instead he was looking down at the two kids who had wrapped their arms around the man’s legs. “Thank you Mr. Hawkman!”.

He nods, unsure of what to say or do and still being uncomfortable with human standards of affection. Still...he wanted to do something. He reaches down and pats both of their heads, gesturing for them to join the rest of the group the two had managed to rescue.

“Elliot! Bethany!” a woman shouts, rushing forward. She had been sobbing inconsolably until the appearance of the children, and now it was clear why. “Mama!”

They throw themselves at the woman who eagerly wraps them up in her arms, squeezing them tightly. “Ohh my babies! My babies! I thought I’d lost you ohh God thank you...thank you so much!” 

She stared at Hawkman who just turns away, unable to maintain it. He didn’t know the fear a parent could have for their child, but he did know that it wasn’t good. “Aww, well he’s being bashful but yeah, saved a few more tykes” John says to Lex.

“Are there anymore?”

  
Constantine looks to Hawkman for an answer, and the Thanagarian just shakes his head to the negative. “No...he didn’t see anymore and my soul sense snare ain’t picking up anything else right now”.

“All together how many were saved?”

John looks back and counts out the heads quickly enough, coming to the number he needed. “All together? Twenty three”.

“Damn...almost feels like it wasn’t worth it”.

Carter looked back at the woman who was checking over her children, happier by the moment that she found no serious injuries. A slight smile tugs the corner of his lips and he nods to himself. “I wouldn’t say that”.

His words aren’t heard by Luthor, but Constantine does hear them. As abrasive as he was, he was still human under the unlikeable exterior he tried to maintain. “Any news on the cleanup?”

“The national guard is here. Commissioner Montoya is leading efforts at trying to saturate the air with water. Apparently water neutralizes the chemical compounds. If there’s enough of it in the air…”.

“Sounds like we need a thunderstorm” John says, looking up at the clear sky and frowning. “The one bloody day in Gotham without rain...hold on, I’ve got it”.

He hands the phone off to Hawkman before raising his hands and beginning to recite his spell. His hands glow a translucent yellow, and even the British man’s eyes are overtaken with the hue. “Turbinem Vocant!”.

He claps his hands together, and the sound echoes out like a thunderclap, feeling as if it had come from a giant. For a moment, nothing happens, until the distant sound of thunder breaks the air. The sky darkens as clouds come out of seemingly nowhere. 

The next second, the air is filled with droplets of rain, which begin to fall in great amounts. Carter hears Lex on the other end of the line. “What’s going on?”

“Constantine used one of his magic tricks” the alien explains, peaking over the side of the building to see the gas almost recoiling from the rain’s touch. “Hmm...impressive”.

“Not really”.

The exorcist have moved up beside him and joining the man in looking out over the city. “Damn ciggy is wet”.

“Whatever he did...well, he doesn’t need any more of an ego boast” Luthor says, not realizing he was on speaker. John doesn’t comment, too busy flicking his ruined cigarette out into the air and replacing it with a dry one from his pack. He quickly utters another incantation, making his entire person somehow impervious to the rains affect. 

It allowed him to light his cigarette much easier.

“What now Luthor?”

“Now that the gas has been dispersed it appears that a group of lunatics, cultists under some guy named Deacon Blackfire, are attempting an assault on Wayne Tower. Scarecrow is believed to be with them”.

“Finally some payback then” John says. 

“Indeed, though you have more support. Vixen and Ice are on their way, along with two homegrown heroes that are part of the Bat Clan. Katana and Black Canary. Canary just got back into the city somehow and says she knows Crane’s weak spot” Luthor says.    
  
“It’ll be good to have all the advantages possible” Luthor continues. “But still, just in case they have any more gas on hand, keep your masks with you. I want this whole thing ended, you hear me?”

“Crystal baldy. Crystal. Now, real question is, have you gotten us an in with the big bad bat?”

Lex goes quiet for a moment, apparently thinking over the answer to that. “Wait until this is all over. What I do know is he’s in the city. We have confirmed reports of the batmobile in the city. I can’t raise him though. Don’t know what he’s after, but whatever it is, it’s important”.

“Alright. Well, we’ll meet the rest of the team at Wayne Tower then”.

“Good luck. Luthor out”.

The connections severs right then and Constantine turns to look at Hawkman. “Well...mind giving me a lift?”

Carter just rolls his eyes and takes off into the air, flapping his wings as fast as he could in order to make it to Wayne Tower.

“Guess that’s a no then”.

John looks at the floor and swirls his hands about, creating a spherical disk that slowly ascends into the air with his feet upon it. “Alright, well, make your way to street level. Sure the cops will be here soon to help you all. Best of luck. Cheers”.

  
He takes off, soaring through the air on his magically conjured disk, Wayne Tower in his sight. ‘Bullocks, it’s fuckin’ cold up here! Damn rain’.

**_The Sewers Under Gotham, Blackfire’s Hideout_ **

“YOU’VE ALL FAILED HIM!” he shouts, pacing wildly back and forth. “YOU’VE ALL FAILED YOUR LORD! YOUR GOD! FAILED HIM MISERABLY!”.

Blackfire slams his hands down on a bench, knocking over the shrine that had been placed on it to James. He didn’t care at that moment. ‘If they cannot ascend us to heaven, how could they even claim to worship our saviour?’.

He turns back to the assembled flock who all cower in fear before him.    
  
Barbara the elder and James themselves were behind him, the woman glaring daggers at all who dared even look at her son. James was just confused. ‘Weren’t we supposed to win? I’m god! We were supposed to win!’.

“All of your objectives failed! Not a single one accomplished. Why? Why? What has our Lord not delivered to you? What has he not given?”

“My prophet, our men are still attacking Wayne Tower…”.

The man who had stepped forth to protest is quickly struck down by one strike from Blackfire’s staff. He doesn’t stop once he’s on the ground either, and blood begins to fly as the old man brings the staff up and down, again and again.

“We have to do something”.

Jason’s whisper barely registered to Barbara whose eyes were glued to her mother. After all these years, there she was. No different. Well, perhaps a little older, a bit of grey in her hair and a little chubbier but no different at all really.

_ “Mommy I love you!” _

She wants to cry, remembering how her mother would take her to the park and push her on the swings. Or how she’d peel the crust off of her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. All of these memories...they war with the hatred for the woman she held inside of her.

This was the same woman who killed her father. Who tried to kill her.    
  


Now? 

She was right here in front of her. 

“You’re right Robin. We do have to do something” she whispers back, slipping through the open tunnel entrance into the main area. Jason’s eyes go wide, as that was certainly not what he meant by doing something. “Babs wait...ahhh!” 

  
Realizing that she wasn’t going to stop, he rushes behind her, drawing his sword. He had put it back into the makeshift scabbard he’d made at his waist when they entered the tunnels beneath Ace Chemicals. The flame had long since died out, but something told him that if he truly needed it again, it would be right there at his command.

_ “Please! Keep her safe Jason. I’m begging you”. _

Now that voice...that voice was new and something was...oddly familiar about it. He didn’t have time to go over it though, and all he could do was listen. He jumps out and joins the redhead in view of all of the cultists.

“Let him go”.

Her voice was nothing but pure rage, and it was something that easily attracted the attention of Blackfire. His eyes rove over her and he is questioning what to say in his mind. “You...you are one of those so called vigilantes aren’t you? The demons who protect the Wayne family?”

Barbara doesn’t say anything and instead continues to glare. She looks down at her feet and shakes her head. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited for this”.

“Robin…” Jason makes to interrupt, not wanting her to do anything rash. 

She ignores him, something he certainly didn’t like coming from his girlfriend.

“What did you say girl? Ohh it matters not. You and the others will not stop us. We shall rise even stronger. My apostles! Kill these interlopers!”

The men in the crowd of bums raise their guns, though one stops right in his tracks, his eyes taking on a glossy look as they mist over. “Woah, Henry...you good buddy..” one of his friends makes to ask before Henry turns his rifle and begins to start blasting at the armed goons.

The one next to him instantly falls, and the crowd falls into chaos as the unarmed civilians try to run away and the armed men try to contain the attack. They stop focusing on the Robins for a moment as two more of their number fall.

“KILL THE TRAITOR!” Blackfire seethes, while Barbara recoils in horror. 

A burst of automatic fire rips into the man, sending him to the ground but it is far from over. Another guard’s eyes change, and the slight relaxation that followed the death of the goon. Another one quickly opens fire, and the Deacon ducks to avoid the spray. “WHAT IN THE NAME OF JAMES IS GOING ON!”

Barbara the elder rushes from the room, James in her arms as more of the guards are gunned down. Barbara exits through one of the rear openings in the empty reservoir and Robin is quick on her heels. “Robin wait!” Jason calls out, rushing forward to be stopped by an irate Blackfire. All around them guards were fighting and dying, fall where they stood. 

“YOU BROUGHT THIS DEVASTATION DOWN UPON US! THE LORD SHALL HAVE HIS REVENGE” Blackfire screams, trying to incapacitate the boy with his staff.

Jason ducks under the swing and brings his sword up, smashing the wooden weapon in half. The man is quickly on him again though, showing a surprising strength as he grapples Jason’s hands together, preventing him from using the sword. 

Jason is distracted for a moment, looking around to try and spot Babs. He couldn’t see her though as she had disappeared into the darkness.

Most of the guards around them were now dead, leaving Blackfire’s cult at effectively just him at this point. Still the man pressed his attack with the dedication of a fanatic, which he effectively was.

Jason was in a panic, knowing that it wouldn’t be good at all if Barbara was left to face her mother alone. He needed to act to save her from herself, which was his whole point in coming here with her.

But first? 

He needed to get away from this insane heretic.

‘Heretic?’ he thinks, questioning his use of that term. ‘Where the hell did that come from?’

“I’m going to kill you boy” Blackfire seethes. “And then I’ll kill your little whore friend for daring to chase after God incarnate!”

And with that, the sword bursts into flame, searing Blackfire’s hands and forcing him onto his back. He howls in pain at the remnants of his destroyed digits which were still burning no matter how he tried to snuff them out. It was as if the flames were alive, and they refused to have their spark dashed out against the robes or the floor.

“You dare touch the true servant of God?”

The knight was back again, and Jason didn’t even need to turn to see him. Blackfire though...he couldn’t look away. His eyes were transfixed on the burning embers of the knight’s glare, staring into his very soul.

The flames that engulfed his hands were gone now, all that remained were the bones with a few bits of flesh attached. “No...no” he stammers through his fear. “It is I who serves the Lord faithfully! I who knows his precepts! It is me! Me! Not this boy!”.

Jason stands resolute, his sword pressed to the man’s throat as St. Dumas, whom he now knows to be the knight who presents himself in such a way, chuckles. “Then why is it that the Lord does not come to your aide? That he is silent to your pleas?”

Blackfire doesn’t say anymore, trying to find something, anything to justify his vision and beliefs but St. Dumas allows him no chance to do so.

“He thwarts the plans of the schemers, so that their hands achieve no success” the apparition says, turning to Jason. “Azrael, my knight. Choose what shall be the fate of this usurper, this fale shepard whom the Lord our God has ordained the highest of punishments” he says. “Whatever you shall choose shall undoubtedly be just”.

Jason hears the apparition falter and move away, leaving him with his sword tip pressed against the jugular of the false preacher. Barbara was now far in his mind.

He had a moral quandary of his own.

**_Right Outside Ace Chemicals_ **

Batman and Batwoman jump from the batmobile, following the beacon that they had placed on both of their wards. The further proof of them being in the right place was the fact of Vic’s Mustang being parked right out front.

“We have to move. Now!”

She shared Bruce’s worry and fear. ‘Barbara...god please don’t do something stupid!’

They enter the abandoned factory, though the evidence of it not being as abandoned as they might have thought is everywhere. Trash and hobo camps were littered all throughout the floor, and even sickly remnants of the canisters that contained the new much more potent Joker Fear gas.

“Where can they be?”

Bruce was still as a board though his head moves from side to side, desperately looking for any sign of his children. “Robin!” Harleen shouts, calling out for both of them at once. Batman sees something across the floor though.

An open sewer grate.

“There! They went underground. The beacon says there still here in Ace Chemicals”.

Harleen rushes behind him, both of their capes splaying out as they run. “But they’re not here!”.

“Exactly” he says, looking down the hole. “They went underground”.

Without a second though he jumps in and Harleen takes even less time, making her almost fearful that she would land right atop him. Luckily Bruce was able to guess at her instincts and was able to move out of the way quickly enough.

He takes a moment before judging the best way to go forward, using the ambient light of campfires that were emanating from the right side of the tunnels.

**_Meanwhile_ **

Jason had just finished tying up Blackfire, having taken a quick moment to wrap his hands. The man was beside himself, babbling incoherently about how he was the true Messiah and that he would lead his people to their promised land.

He didn’t care at the moment, and he doubted he ever would. He knew that the only reason he’d spared the pathetic excuse for a man was what Bruce and Harleen had taught him.

Now though, there were much deeper concerns.

“Babs…”.

Before he could take off, the sound of footsteps rushing down one of the wet side tunnels intercepts him, and he draws his sword, his eyes narrowing as he makes ready for another encounter. “We don’t have time for this” he seethes to himself.

From the dark maw arrives two figures, two that are instantly recognizable. He drops the sword. “Batman...Batwoman”.

“Robin!”

Harleen was instantly on him, hugging the boy tightly as she looks him over. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“Mom, mom...I’m fine”.

Both had forgotten their decorum, though it didn’t matter. Everyone else left in the room to hear their lapses in language had either fled or been killed, and in Blackfire’s case the encounter with Dumas had left him certifiably insane.

That is he wasn’t already insane before.

Bruce was happy, and angered, but they had to focus for the moment. “Where is Robin?”

Jason looks down one of the tunnels and gestures to where she had run off. “Somewhere down there. She took off after her mother”.

“Ohh no..” Harleen gasps.

“We have to move. Now!”

Bruce stops the boy, placing a hand on his shoulder as he tries to say something. The anger fades away though, and all the pieces fit together. Still, his eyes narrow as he looks at his son. “We’re going to talk about everything that has happened later”.

The male Robin averts his eyes and nods, already resigned to the fact that he was in for a verbal chewing out. Still...for Barbara? It was worth it.

The three set out into the tunnel, desperately trying to figure out where Barbara had gone and prevent her from making the worst mistake of her life.

Still, Jason was confused about something.

The guards had all turned on each other. Did St. Dumas do that? Or was there another force at work here?   
  


And that familiar voice...it was still picking at the back of his brain.

_ “Find her. Find my little girl Jason”. _

**_Down the Sewer Line_ **

“Mommy what’s happening?”

James was frightened, an emotion he wasn’t used to feeling. And it certainly wasn’t one that he was used to seeing on his mother. The redheaded woman turned this way and that, trying to face an invisible enemy.

“You don’t remember me do you?”

The voice came from the darkness, and it sent shivers down the woman’s very spine. She almost falls over the edge into the reservoir which was currently in use. The frothing waters swelled below her and so did the tons of debris that they washed up on the artificial shore. Pebbles fall over the side and make the nearly thirty foot drop.

“Ohh...watch your step”.

The figure was right in front of her, and before she could do anything it reaches out and grasps James with one hand to throw him back towards safety. The little boy skitters across the filthy water, landing on his butt five feet away. 

  
Barbara screams out to him and reaches for him, though the figure wasn’t having it.

  
Robin pushes her forward, dangling her over the edge until only the heels of the woman’s worn boots remained on solid rock. “Please! Stop! You don’t have to do this!”

“DON’T FUCKING TELL ME WHAT I HAVE TO DO!” Barbara seethes, frightening the woman even more as she closes her eyes and begins to cry.

“Who...who are you? What do you want?”

“You really don’t recognize me do you?”

“Nooooo! I told you! I’ve done nothing wrong! Nothing!” Barbara the elder defends herself.

“What about James Gordon huh? And Barbara Gordon? You’re fucking husband and daughter! You killed him and tried to kill her!” Babs screeches, barely able to hold back as she moves in a few inches away from the woman’s face.

“James was a weakling! A failed man! His only accomplishment was bringing the messiah into our world!” she screams, causing Robin to thrust her out a bit more.

“Mommy!”.

The young girl turns towards the boy and is unable to contain the rage she felt at him either. “Shut the fuck up!”.

She turns back to Barbara and smiles lightly. “And what about your daughter? Your little girl? The one you tucked in every night and told her that you loved her...what about her?!” Tears were slowly leaking from her eyes, and she couldn’t help but feel like she was back in that diner again that day. Weak and powerless.

“She was her father’s daughter” Barbara smears. “Pathetic. It was a waste of time to love her. She has no place in God’s kingdom. You have to understand!” Barbara pleads, feeling the girl’s grip on her robe tighten.

“Do I?”

Babs reaches up for her mask and pulls it off, exposing her eyes and face to the woman. “How about now?”

The tears were pouring out of her eyes and it only took a moment for Barbara to recognize who this was. “Barbara? You...you’re a demon! A demon sent her to kill..”.

“I’m your goddamn daughter!”

Babs was shaking the older woman harshly, resisting the urge to just throw her into the abyss. It might still come to that but she had to say what needed to be said first. “Your daughter! Your little girl who loved you and looks exactly like you! I fucking hate you! And I hate myself when I look into the mirror! Do you know what that feels like? You took everything from me! Turned me into...into…”.

Babs couldn’t find the words at that moment, and she falters. Barbara herself was about to say something but...the same look that came over the guards eyes comes over her own. Slowly the woman smiles, though it doesn’t fit on her face.

“Into a beautiful woman that I’m so proud of”.

The voice that came out of her mouth was different from her own, and unlike Jason, Barbara instantly recognizes it. “Daddy…”.

Barbara just nods, though...was it Barbara?

“My little patrol partner”.

That was her father alright. He was referring to her with the same nickname he always used. It was “their little secret” as Barbara the elder hated when James would talk about Barbara eventually joining the force. “How...how is this…”.

“I never left you sweetheart” the man says through the woman, her eyes now white as snow. “I’ve been with you every step of the way. I couldn’t be more proud of you. I...I don’t have a lot of time. Staying in one body too long, especially if they have a soul, it kicks me out”.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s hard to explain but I’m kind of a hero...like you! I go by Deadman. Mystical voodoo Hindu goddess stuff. Trust me it’s confusing as all hell..ooops...wait, why the hell am I apologizing? You’ve got the worst potty mouth I’ve ever heard young lady”.

She blushes and looks away from her father at his chiding, a chuckle coming as tears rush down her face. “I…”.

“Shhh...sweetie...you have a mother and it isn’t the woman who birthed you” the man says. “Harleen Wayne who you’ve been a little too hard on is your mom. And Bruce Wayne? He’s your dad”.

“You’re my dad”.

The body shakes her head up and down. “Sure but you have two dads now and not in a creepy way. You have brothers and sisters galore, aunts and uncles who all love you and want to help you. A boyfriend who I wish I could have a stern talking too but can’t right now. So, what gives? Why are you going on this massive quest for revenge?”

“Because of you daddy...I lost you”.

“I know sweetie” the woman nods. “The last thing I ever wanted to do was leave you but...that was then. Now? I want to make sure I don’t lose my little girl...ohh..no..no just a few more...sweetie...I love yo-”.

Before the sentence could be finished, the woman’s eyes return to normal and it’s clear that Barbara the elder was back in control. She seems unphased but Barbara was angrier than before, and she felt like she’d lost her father again.

“No, no bring him back! Fuck you bring him back!”

  
“Whore! A whore of Babylon that’s all you are! A demon meant to destroy our God!”.

“No” Babs seethes. “I’m more than that. I’m the daughter of James Gordon and Bruce and Harleen Wayne” she says, settling on a course of action. She pulls the woman back off of the edge, though she keeps a hold on her. “I’m the daughter of Batman!” she screams, wanting to get even with her mother by showing her where she’d wound up, the secret identities they all hid behind less important at the moment. 

“You? You’re nothing”.

At that moment, Jason, Bruce and Harleen enter, reaching out for the girl.

“Robin!”

“Babs!”

“Munchkin don’t!”

Barbara turns to them and smiles widely, tears coming down her face. “I beat her guys...I beat her”.

Her words were simple though they held the promise of more to come. Harleen was the most comforted, and she heaves a sigh of relief. “Barbara…” she says. “You put that bitch down, come over here and give me a hug and let me yell at you for giving us this grade A heart attack” Harleen orders.

Jason smiles and shakes his head good naturedly. “Always getting into trouble”.

  
All had visibly relax as the situation revealed itself to be basically resolved. Even Bruce seemed uncharacteristically at ease. “That’s my girl”.

  
Each were concerned about Babs having outed them to her mother, but with a bit of care they could get her to Ivy and have her use one of her plant based chemicals to rewire the woman’s memories like she had done with the Talons who’d attacked Wayne Manor.

“DEMON! I’LL KING THE DEMON MAMA!”

Everybody had forgotten about James Jr’s presence, and the little boy was taking advantage of that. He rushes forward, just ahead of anyone’s reaction time. His eyes were zeroed in on his elder sister, his mind fixated on the glory he’d gain for himself amongst his followers if he managed to kill her!

He throws his body at her mid section, causing her to loose her balance. The added weight of Barbara wasn’t helping either.

Bruce and Harleen both grabbed their batclaws, shooting them out in the hopes of being able to pull the girl back in. They were falling too fast though, and the line sails right over them.

“NOOOOOO!”

Jason screams and rushes forward at the same time, making to grab Babs’ cape. His fingers brush it though, and he isn’t able to get a firm hold. Instead he watches as the three figures fall through the darkness below. Barbara’s face was fixed in horror as she reached out to her best friend who tried to do anything he could to save her.

They kept falling and falling until impacting harshly against the rock hard cement below them.

“BARBARA!” Jason screams out in agony.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so this chapter was very intense for me to write. It was just very emotionally taxing. I hope I did an adequate job of writing it though and I hope it keeps you interested in what is coming next.

**_Mayoral Fallout Shelter_ **

The baby’s cries were emanating throughout the small room, though nobody could find it within them to care. The sight before them was too beautiful for them to worry about a little bit of noise.

Pam had stripped out of her dress and into a medical gown following the birth of their second baby, which had miraculously gone off without a hitch. Pamela was looking down at the bundle in her arms, cooing at it while Harvey sat on the side of the bed, looking over her.

As soon as it was ascertained that Pamela and the baby were both in perfect health the guards had backed off, taking up their posts at the door. “Harvey, come here and hold your son”.

“Of cou...wait…” the man says, stopping as the woman’s words sink in. Pamela was smiling, practically grinning ear to ear. “What do you mean son?” he asks, moving a little closer to inspect the bundle further. He hadn’t been able to get a perfect, clear and unobstructed view due to Pam holding the baby so close so far.

She gently lifts the blanket on the murring and now cleaned baby, showing Harvey before replacing the blanket around the little boy. “A son...but...but they told us…”.

She nods and rolls her eyes.

“Pfft, as if someone could tell me about my own biology” she teases, cooing down at the baby. “Harvey...I’m going to keep this little science explanation simple but...when you...ahhemm finish your job, I kind of...get to pick one, if my egg accepts your swimmers, and two choose what kind of sperm cell”.

Harvey shakes his head. “Why...why didn’t you tell me this before?”

The redhead woman arches a perfectly manicured eyebrow. “Did you ever ask?”

Harvey felt his throat constrict as he gets choked up, trying to fight his emotions. He reaches out his arms and takes the little boy into them, cradling him close in the crook of his one arm while reaching down with his other to touch his face.

His skin was green, like his mother..but his hair. His hair was a dark brown, like his father. Pamela already senses the next question. “Just chalk it down to you having a freak of nature for a wife Harvey”.

He sits down closer to his wife and reaches out for her hand to squeeze. “No. I have the most perfect and beautiful woman to ever walk this Earth for a wife”.

She smiles back and blushes, focused once more on the bundle. “But...again...how?”

“My body can kind of sense whether the swimmer had an x or y chromosome” she explains. “It’s really quite simple Harvey. When it comes to me, listen to me alright? I know how I work now, I know you’re a proud papa and he’s the most beautiful little boy, but he’s getting hungry. I can tell”.

She reaches down and gently undoes her gown, though she hides the movement from anyone else. Harvey leans down to hand her their son whom she instantly cradles into her chest. She was right, their baby boy was hungry. He instantly latches onto his mother and starts to feed while she works and arranging the blankets in such a way as to give him and herself some privacy.

Her husband turns over to see Harleen, sitting on the cot and looking over nervously. She’d been horrified by the scene she saw while Pamela was giving birth and even if this was easier on her than other women, it was impossible for her not to be in pain.

Harvey gestures for her to come closer with his hand, urging the family into one tight grouping. “Come here Harleen. Come here and meet your little brother”.

“Little brother?” 

She was undoubtedly excited as she had been told that she was going to have a little sister. Part of her had been worried about not being the little girl anymore, and she wanted to jealously guard that position. But if the baby was a little boy? She could be her parent’s little girl and he could be their little boy. There’d be no need to fight!

Such was the thinking and rationale of a young child.   
  
She quickly moves over to the side of the bed where Harvey reaches down to pick her up by the waist to place her on the bed. Her eyes are instantly glued to the little boy and she reaches out with her hand before drawing back.

“It’s okay sweetie. You can touch him”.

Harleen listens to her mother’s words and leans in to gently rub her hands through the peach fuzz atop his head. She couldn’t help but giggle at the feeling. Harleen leans in and kisses the top of the little boy’s head, the baby only gently moving as he was too invested in feeding at that moment. 

“He’s so cute!”

“How’s it feel being a big sister Harleen?”

The little girl looks up at her father and smiles widely. “I’m gonna take care of him! I’ll teach him how to throw a baseball and play sports and build legos, and…”.

Her father reaches down and ruffles her hair, loving her enthusiasm more than anything else. “I’m gonna go with you being an awesome big sister”.

He hugs the girl close and kisses her head, the family content to just be sitting their, together and happy. Across the room a guard opens his cell phone, Luthor having called once before right in the middle Pamela Dent’s labor.

He had wanted a sit rep then, but the usually stoic and job focused men had been affected by the act of helping the woman give birth so he had been hung up on following being made aware of what was going on.

Now?  
  


They’d inevitably have to face the music.

“Think he’ll understand?”

“I doubt it” the second guard says, moving the phone to his ear, just in case the bald man started to scream.

“Hello?”

The man winces, knowing that the irritated tone in the other man’s voice was not a good sign. “Um, Mr. Luthor, the baby was delivered successfully and appears to be in good health sir”.

“Ohh, well...that’s good. Please pass my congratulations onto the mayor” the man says before moving onto the next subject. “Please let him know that the situation is...under control. Joker and his side kick, Dick Grayson have been apprehended at Arkham and Wayne Manor respectively. As far as we know there were no major casualties at either place. Scarecrow has been cornered and Black Canary is working on taking him down. She believes she’ll be able to do what she did at the asylum once again”.

“Alright sir, we’ll tell him. Is there anything else?”

Lex doesn’t respond for a moment, apparently mulling over what he should say. “Tell him...we haven’t made contact with the Batman yet”.

“Alright sir”.

“Luthor out”.

The guard hangs up the phone and turns to the other man, a little shocked by the turn of events that had led to him not being screamed at by his boss. Slowly he stands up, pushing the chair away from the table that was within the shelter. “Umm...Mayor Dent? A moment of your time”.

Harvey didn’t want to part from his family, even for a second, but he knew that this was important. He was still the mayor and in the future he’d be even more important. 

He turns to Pamela and kisses her once on the forehead before repeating the actions on his son and daughter. He moves off with the men who begin to speak.

“Mr. Mayor, the Justice Society of America has the situation under control” the man begins. “Scarecrow is the only one left, and Black Canary is on it”.

He schools his face, trying not to let the surprise show. ‘At least I know Dinah and Vic are safe for now then and if they’re safe? The kids probably are too’.

“Alright...good. Can we leave the bunker?”

“We haven’t gotten the signal yet sir” the man says. “Besides that? Mrs. Dent is in no shape to move quite yet. I would suggest just spending a few more hours here. Rest up until the Scarecrow is also captured”.

Harvey knew that this wasn’t a request. Luthor wanted him and his family safe, and when Lex Luthor wanted something he usually got it.

“Go ahead and spend some more time with your family sir” the man suggests. “These next few days will be...difficult”.

It sounded like he knew something that Harvey didn’t, and he couldn’t exactly call him on it now. No, to do so would invite an argument, and an argument would disrupt Pam and the baby. The last thing he wanted right now was to hear his baby boy cry.

Harvey turns back towards the bet and sets himself down on the bed again, being careful not to sit on Ivy’s legs. Harleen was still rubbing the little boy’s head and whispering cutely to him about all the fun they were going to have. He was happy, more happy than he had ever been in his life.

“You okay hon? What was all that about?”

“Ohh nothing. Nothing just a sitrep. Nothing is going on. We’re just going to settle down and wait here for a little while. Just a little while longer”.

  
As he puts his hand on the bundle in Pamela’s grip he almost thinks that he’d be happy just...sitting here, forever.   
  
“Soooo...what’s the little guys name?”

That was a conversation and a possible debate, hell he knew it would most likely be a debate. “Hmm..well, he’s going to be as utterly handsome as his father so it fits that you two share a first name”.

“Ohh really?”

“Uhhmm” she coos, gently letting the baby release her nipple, being done with feeding. She covers herself up and brings the toddler out a bit, still cradling him to her chest. He cutely lays his head on her shoulder and lets out an adorable little yawn. Harleen was quickly on her mother’s opposite side, worrying her father who is quickly waved off by the green skinned woman.

“I just gave birth sweetie. Doesn’t mean I’m a china doll. In fact, means I’m probably a whole lot stronger than you”.

Harvey could help but laugh, knowing that nothing would ever damper his wife’s fighting spirit. 

“That so?”

“That’s so. Now...how about a middle name?”

That was more of a ponderance for them, and none of them had a really good answer. “How about Alexander?” Harleen suddenly pipes up.

Both adults look at her strangely, wondering where she could have possibly gotten that idea. “Well...Lex Luthor is the reason we’re in here right?” she asks shyly, feeling that she made a mistake. “And his real name is Alexander”.

Pamela was the first to laugh, though she’s quickly joined by Harvey who picks up his daughter and peppers her face with kisses. “That’s a good idea Mayor Harleen Dent. So, our new little deputy mayor is named Harvey Alexander Dent”.

“How’s that sound Pam?”

She looks back down at her baby boy and smiles, mulling those words over in her head. ‘My son. My little boy. Harvey Alexander Dent. Alexander the greatest’.

“I think it’s as beautiful as him”.

**_The Sewer_ **

He held her body in his hands, and all he could do was sob and stand stock still otherwise. “Barbara...no...no...no….God no……”.

Barbara hadn’t survived the fall. None of them did. A few feet away lay the corpses of Barbara Gordon the elder and James Gordon Jr. Nobody rushes to them though, as they are all fixed in horror upon the limp body of the redheaded girl.

Harleen was sobbing uncontrollably, though she wasn’t able to even speak. She had just sunk to the floor following their mad rush down the side. Jason had gotten to her first.

Jason would always be the first to run to Barbara.

“My little girl….” Harleen screams, finally able to get the words out. Bruce just holds her, fighting his own tears that leak through the cowl. He couldn’t look. He couldn’t bear it. Not now. ‘You failed’ he screams at himself mentally. ‘She’s dead because of you! And Jason...Jason will never be the same’.

He could already see it in how the boy’s posture was. He shook, uncontrollably now as he had his arms under Barbara, trying to lift her off of the ground. Her legs remained limp, and her head tilted to the side. Her stomach was cut right across, her body having landed right across an abandoned strip of scrap metal. Her face was gnarled up by cuts, all of which had stopped bleeding with her lap of a heartbeat.

Jason’s mouth was blood smeared, and so were his gloved hands. As soon as they reached her he had thrown himself to her side and began mouth to mouth resuscitation.

_“COME ON BARBARA! DAMMIT DON’T YOU LEAVE ME! DON’T YOU LEAVE WITHOUT ME!”_

After a while...he saw what Bruce and Harleen saw from the beginning.

She was gone. And nothing would bring her back.

“Barbara….I’m so damn sorry….” he says, leaning in and kissing her cheek. “I was supposed to protect you...and I failed…”.

Harleen rushes from Bruce’s arms violently, moving to Jason with a speed she reserved mostly for crime fighting. She moves to Jason and wraps her arms around him tightly from behind. “No...no...sweetie...no...you were perfect…”.

“I...I should’ve stopped her...I should’ve thrown her in that safe room with Alfred and Nana...I….I”.

She leans her head on his shoulder and tries to comfort the boy. “Sweetie...this was our fault…” she says. “We never...never should’ve brought you two into our world…..we...we….”.

“Bruce...Bruce what is going on? Is everything alright? We haven’t heard from anyone”.

Alfred’s voice crackles to life in his ear piece and it takes a mountain of energy to get the vigilante to move his hand up to answer it. When he clicks his communicator on, he shakes and he doubted his voice was steady either. 

“Alfred...send Montoya our coordinates. Blackfire and his cult have been taken down and subdued. Give us time…”.

The man knew that something was wrong, instantly.

“Bruce...what’s happened?”

His eyes go back to his daughter’s corpse, and he looks her in her still open eyes. Eyes that were now empty and would never shine with the light of life that they once held.

_“Hahah! Papa Bruce! Look..I can do a cartwheel”._

_“Well...umm...happy father’s day” she said, handing him a card and pecking his cheek._

_“I know you’re just looking out for me”._

_“I love you too”._

The memories flash over him, and he feels his knees buckle though he stays upright. Someone had to be strong right now, if only to let the others fall apart like they desperately wanted too. Barbara was gone...and with her? A part of his soul.

“Barbara is gone Alfred…”.

“What? Gone where…”.

“She’s gone”.

Silence reigns supreme, and Alfred was working on processing what had just been said to him. “No….no….Master Bruce...no…”.

“Give us time” he repeats, clicking off the communicator. He couldn’t talk. Not right now and not to the man who’d raised him.

Right now he had to focus on his wife and son.

He walks up behind them slowly, and places a hand on Jason’s shoulder. He expects to be rebuffed, for the boy to hate him as much as he hates himself, but Jason remains focused on Barbara’s corpse. 

“Jason...this isn’t your fault” he says. “It’s mine. I failed the both of you and I…”. He doesn’t say anymore, and it was clear that Jason wasn’t in the right frame of mind to listen right now. He raises his hand and places his fingers over Barbara’s eyelids, closing them for the last time.

“I love you Barbara” he whispers, leaning in to kiss her once more. When he pulls back he doesn’t go far, and he continues to speak. “I always will. You’ll always be that little girl who was nice to a dirty street kid. You’ll always be my best friend and when I see you again…”.

He rises with her body still in his arms and begins to walk away, while Harleen doesn’t move at all. She just stares into the dust below her. 

“Harleen…”.

He was fearful now. His wife...he could see how utterly devastated she was and he knew that there was no way to ever fix the huge hole that was now undoubtedly in her heart. He felt it too but he couldn’t breach the gap between their shared pain.

“We...we killed her Bruce...we...we…”.

He falls to the ground beside her and gathers her in his arms. She hugs him back, her arms latching onto him with a ferocious force that he never expected. He couldn’t fix death but he was going to try and heal her as best as he could.

He’d try. 

For all of them. That was all he had left. His family. A family that was one less now.

“Bruce...this is Lex. I’m sorry for overriding your communications but this is urgent”.

Lex Luthor’s voice broke through the airwaves, getting to both Batman and Batwoman. Reluctantly they pull away from one another and move to their feet, focusing on the task at hand as a way to keep them from falling into the abyss of their grief. Harleen says nothing else and stares at the other two bodies. Barbara the elder had landed atop a pile of discarded concret. She’d died slowly and hopefully painfully. 

James Jr had landed atop her, and most likely would have survived had it not been for the jagged corners of a rusted stop sign that had flooded into the sewers.

“Luthor. What is it?”

“A fast mover heading into Gotham and we all know who it is. I’ve also received an open message. The Justice League are apparently here to help”.

Harleen snaps to attention at that, being privy to the conversation going on. Her lip curls and she begins to move up out of the man made gorge, casting one last baleful look at the woman who had tried to kill Barbara twice, and whom had succeeded on her second attempt by proxy.

“She isn’t your daughter. She’s mine. And you took her from me. When I die? I’ll find your ass and kill you again and again”.

With that she disappears into the darkness, undoubtedly heading up towards the batmobile. Bruce hardens his heart and sets himself on a course of action. If he didn’t have three more children to worry about he knew that he would leave this Earth today in attempting to squash Superman.

But, he still had other’s to live for.

“Where does the tyrant want to meet?”

“Right outside Gotham City limits. Apparently he wants to meet all the “fugitives” we’re hiding here as well”.

“Are the defenses ready?”

“They are”.

“And our self sufficiency plan?”  
  
“Before downtown was levelled we were ready to feed and clothe approximately eighty three percent of the city’s population. After the attacks...it’s now one hundred percent and more Bruce”.

The man looks down, knowing that much had been lost in this all out assault upon Gotham, but he felt none keener than that of the redhead that filled his life with so much anger, joy and purpose all at once.

He hated that he had no empathy to share for the rest of Gotham’s people. Not at the moment.

“Get ready to launch it”.

**_Wayne Manor_ **

“Uncle Vic, where did Aunt Dinah go?”

The man turns in his head to look in the mirror, putting the car in park and undoing his seatbelt. “Umm...well...Aunt Dinah went to go kick some guy’s butt because apparently she’s very good at kicking this particular guys butt” he explains, opening the door and stepping out of the car. 

“Ohh” Martha says, continuing to play with her toy horse. Many thing that would be weird in any other child’s world were commonplace within the children’s who lived at Wayne Manor. It was just one of those quirks that they’d learned to deal with.

Vic was focused on getting the kids, all six of them, out of the car, having returned to the manor as soon as Gotham was declared “safe” though that was a uniquely relative term for this city. He looks at the entrance and sees a strange sight, as Elise and a bandaged Alfred were sitting there.

Elise was practically catatonic, and her eyes stood wide open yet unseeing while Alfred, who had an arm around her shoulder, tried to soothe her. Upon the entrance of the limo, he gently detaches from her, needing to speak with Vic.   
  


“Nana...what’s wrong?”

The kids all rush up to their shared “Nana Elise” and that brings the woman only moderately out of her stupor. She reaches for them all, Wayne and Sage alike, and brings them into her lap, burying her head in Mary’s hair. 

Vic was now well aware that something was wrong.

“Alfred...what’s going on?”

The butler didn’t know what to say, and he knew in his heart that it didn’t matter. Nothing would soothe the pain that would be caused in the man’s heart at the news.

‘He was her favorite uncle’.

“Mr. Sage….”.

Alfred places a hand on the man’s shoulder, more to brace himself against something solid than anything more. “Barbara….Barbara was killed”.

“What?”

“Don’t make me repeat it” Alfred pleads, his tears already brimming up over his eyes. He stumbled a bit and Vic was forced to catch him, hugging the man close. He had begun to cry to, though they were silent tears that made tracks along his face.

“She...she...I...I don’t know how...Master Bruce didn’t...didn’t...tell me”.

Alfred was stuttering, and watching the old man break was just as painful as watching Elise stare off blankly with eyes that seemed and felt dead. “Ohh God...Barbara”.

“Nana….no! NO! YOU’RE LYING!”

Elise had most likely told the children what they needed to know, and Mary, she was the one who screamed out. She squirms out of her grandmother’s arms and into the manor, able to avoid being caught by Elise who had lost her stare and was now crying.   
  


She had five other children who all began to cry as well upon hearing the news. 

“Al...go...go to them. I’ll go get Mary".

“Yes...yes. Very well”.

The man let’s go of the driver and conspiracy theorist and walks back to the steps, the footsteps the two made across the gravel echoing out. Alfred lowers himself back onto his seat and takes Rosaleen and Martha into his arms while Elise continues to hug Victor, Charles and Bruce.

He wants to comfort his children, but...he was. There was very little sense of “yours” and “mine” in the Wayne house. Love was shared out equally amongst all the children. Rosaleen was just as liable to go to any of the adults for a kiss for her childhood injuries as she was to Dinah or Vic. That was just the life they all lived. 

‘Mary needs someone’.

He enters the manor, and it isn’t hard to find the girl as she runs across the entrance hall. “Barbara! Barbara! Come out!” she screams, stopping to stamp her foot and crying out. The tears stained her face with the intensity of a constant river, and at that moment it felt like that river would never stop flowing. 

“BARBARA!” she screams, louder than before. “STOP HIDING!”

“Mary…”.

The little girl turns and begins to try and move away from the man. “No! Stop! You’re all lying! No! Barbara isn’t dead!”.

He was broken, and he knew that no matter how much time and healing took place, he would carry the look on Mary’s face to his grave. “No! NOOOOO!”

She collapses to her knees and Vic is right there with her, scooping the girl up. “NO! YOU’RE LYING! YOU’RE LYING! YOU’RE LYINGGG!”.

She beats at him with her little hands and he allows her too, though he uses his hand to burry her face in his shoulder and neck. “I know sweetie...I know it hurts. It hurts so much. I know...I know”.

She just keeps crying, and the father in him tells him that he can do nothing but hold her. Nothing at all. 

This was one conspiracy he’d never find the answer to.

**_East End Gotham Bookstore_ **

“Too cramped...too cramped. No, no they wont come in! They wont come in!” Crane screams to himself, lamenting that he couldn’t use the tight confined spaces to halt the police. 

“JONATHAN CRANE!” a voice shouts out over the megaphone. “THIS IS COMMISSIONER MONTOYA! IT’S OVER! ALL YOUR MEN ARE IN MY CUSTODY! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!”

He looks down towards his belt and hisses at the fact that he had no more gas grenades. He’s used them all when the mortars started to fire, directly at Wayne Tower. ‘Stupid...should’ve saved some’.

The attack on the tower had...not gone according to plan. The gas cleared too quickly and the heroes were upon them with a lightning speed he hadn’t expected. Katana and two new ones, both women. One with the power of animals and one with claws. He didn’t quite know what she could do but he didn’t want to wait around and find out. So he’d fled, and his men, the cultists, had slowly been picked off until he was the only one left.

Like a cornered rat he’d gone to ground and hid in an abandoned bookstore. It was all brick and posed a good spot to hold out from in theory. However, he had no men left and there were no exits except through the front door which was now covered by a mountain of police. An insurmountable tide.

“I’ll wait them out! I’ll find something…”.

“No you wont”.

Before he could respond, something reached out for him through the dark and grabbed him by the shoulders. Whoever it was was strong enough to pick him up and toss him straight through a bookcase, adding enough rage to the mix to cause it shatter and splinters to fly everywhere.

He was in pain, some of the wood having managed to cut him here and there though he regains his senses quick enough. He makes to get up, wanting to face this foe head on but a boot slamming down on his chest prevents him.

He gasps out in pain and reaches for the ankle, wanting to push whoever it was off of him.

When he indeed got a good look at exactly WHO it was...his heart began to race. He struggles out from under her, screaming out. “No! No! Go away! Go away!”.

Black Canary stood above him in her normal outfit, though the running mascara, indicative of tears, proved that something was different. Very different.

“That’s what you should’ve done” she exclaims, reaching down to grasp him by the collar. She slams him against another bookcase though this one doesn’t crumble as it was anchored to the wall. Instead the books fall down off of the shelves all around him. He doesn’t focus on that though. He focuses on the hate in the woman’s eyes. 

“I surrender! I give up! I give up! Stop! Please! Please!” 

Dinah wasn’t listening. Not to the man’s cries, nor his pleas. All she could hear was Alfred’s voice, sharing with her the news. The tears of her babies. The look of devastation on her husband’s face as he tried to console Mary’s face.

She draws her fist back.

“WAIT N…”.

She brings it on on Crane’s face, and the satisfying snap of his nose brings her a little bit closer to comfort. Some of his blood dribbles out onto her gloves, but she doesn’t care. In fact she wanted more.

Her fist rises and falls, caving the man’s face in practically and breaking his jaw. She doesn’t stop, not even when his eye socket is cracked. She doesn’t care and the blood spatter shows it.

She just keeps going.

**_Fifteen Minutes Later_ **

“He ain’t coming out commish. Should we go in and get him?”  
  


“No Harvey, give it some time. Canary went…”.

The door to the bookstore opens and a bloody Canary walks out. She steps down onto the street, her eyes fixed straight ahead on her motorcycle which was still where she parked it.

“Canary…” Montoya says, moving forward and appraising the woman. “What...what happened?”

“He’s alive” the blonde says. “He shouldn’t be. But he’s alive. He needs medical attention. Place is clear. Go clean up the scum”.

She continues towards her bike and the hispanic woman orders her men inside. “Where are you going?”

Canary doesn’t answer and simply mounts her bike, looking down at her watch which signals that she was needed. “Where I need to go”. With that she starts the bike and rockets off down the street, towards and unknown destination to Montoya but Wayne Manor to comfort her babies.

Montoya couldn’t help but feel that something bigger than the gas attack upon the city was affecting the members of the bat family.

Whatever it was, it hurt them and hurt them bad.

**_Gold’s Truck Stop_ **

“Hmm...typical. They aren’t going to show are they?”

The man smiles serenely as he floats in the air above the ruined asphalt. “Give it time Diana. The city just went through something terrible”.

“It wouldn’t have even happened had they simply bowed before us” the Amazon seethes. Beside her stood Zatanna Zatara, clad in only a black robe and a top hat. Her mouth was covered by a piece of cloth. Also by Diana’s side stood Hawkgirl who twirled her mace apathetically within her hand. Next to Superman stood Cyborg, Martian Manhunter, Red Tornado and Gorilla Grodd. Only a fraction of his forces true...but he didn’t need all of them.

“Ahh, here they come now”

“What do you mean, how can you…”.

A portal opens right before them, and out steps a multitude of figures. 

“Sorry the first time we all gotta meet I’m yankin’ ya through portals but...easiest way to get here”.

Batman and Batwoman ignore Constantine, and step forward to stand opposite Superman and Wonder Woman respectively. 

“Hey...what’s their problem?”

Vixen, Luthor, Ice and Hawkman join the group, and Vixen was the only one to humor the exorcist. “Whatever it is? Don’t pick at it. Bad enough we’re meeting our team leaders in the middle of a warzone, don’t make it worse huh pumpkin?”

For some reason the black woman put Constantine off balance, and he never replied snarkily back to her like he would with any of the others. Especially when she pats his cheek and walks off. “Alright sod it. I’m only listening to you because you have a perfect arse” he defends.

Vixen takes it as a compliment and shakes it a bit for him as he follows behind. “Ohh I know Lennon. If you’re a good boy maybe I’ll let you see it one day”.

“Don’t call me Lennon….”.

The others ignore this banter and saddle up into their respective lines. For now, the Justice League outnumbered the Justice Society, but it was misleading considering half of their number were back in the city.

“Batman, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you” Superman begins, each team member extending their greetings. 

“Carter” Hawkgirl says, a longing tone in her voice.

The man looks away from her and Ice subconsciously saddles up into his side. This causes the Thanagarian woman to frown, not liking the Norwegian’s closeness to her husband at all.

“Constantine…” Zatanna hisses, her voice carrying a distinctly unearthly tone. 

John takes a drag on his cigarette and flicks it away. “Ello love. Still playing with elder gods or did that nasty rash Cthulu left you with change your mind?”

She hisses and extends her hands out, making to attack until a firm hand on her shoulder from Wonder Woman prevents her.

“We come in peace Batman. We just want to ask why you’re harboring fugitives in your city and to help with any cleanup process there might be”.

Bruce wasn’t fooled by the mock jovial and convivial manner the Kryptonian was putting forward. Neither were the others. “Fugitives based on whose definition?” Luthor asks, wanting to take the full weight off of Bruce at the moment. He could tell that something was wrong. Horribly wrong.

“By the U.S government of course” he says, reaching back and letting Cyborg hand him a piece of paper. Luthor steps forward and takes it, reading through it as quickly as possible. “Ahh, so you’ve effectively seized complete control of the government and sentenced me to death”.

Superman smirks cruelly. 

“Sorry Lex. They voted”.

Luthor feels his lips curl. “Ahh, the perils of democracy I suppose”. He turns back to the group and reads off their names as well. “Mari McCabe is to be sentenced to twenty years in prison. Tora Olafsdottir...death. John Constantine...Death. The rest are all a varying level of prison terms”.

“What about me?” Hawkman asks.

“Nothing my love” Shayera says, stepping forward. “You’re under the laws of Thanagar as an ambassador. You have immunity…”.

“If he joins us” Superman corrects.

Shayera looks away in shame and then back at her husband who merely scowls. “I guess I’ve got a death sentence too”.

“I don’t have time for this” Bruce seethes. “We’re not giving in. You wont take Gotham. Leave us alone while you still have the chance”.

All he was focused on was retreating back to the Manor where his daughter and son was. The last thing he wanted to deal with.

Superman’s face falls and he nods. “So, it’s war”.

“It is” Lex interjects.

  
“Look at this puny bald man sisters” Diana laughs out, crossing her arms over her chest. She wore a traditional breastplate of the amazons, a skirt and a cape were added too her armor while her legs were protected by greaves. A shield was hung over her back and a sword was sheathed at her hip.

“He believes that he actually has a chance of fighting us” she snickers. “And winning if I do believe so!”

Zatanna laughs, an otherworldly grunt emanating out from under her cloth covering. Shayera remains stoic, her eyes locked pleadingly onto Hawkaman.

“Is that really your final answer Lex?”

“It is. John no!”

Constantine steps forward and slams what appeared to be a playing card down onto the ground. It flashes and smokes up the whole area, obscuring everyone’s view.

He hears his compatriots coughing around him, and he sighs pitifully, hating that it had come to this. He takes a deep breath and blows outward, dispersing the smoke and clearing their vision.

As expected, they were gone, the exorcist undoubtedly using his magic to spirit them all away in the same manner that they had come. What was shocking though, or at least unexpected, was the horrible sound emanating out from under the Earth.

It shook, and as they all looked towards the city they saw large steel walls slowly rise out from underneath. They encircled the city and rose at least three to four hundred feet in the air. It takes a few moments, but eventually they cut off the view save for only the tallest of buildings.

Wonder Woman scoffs.

“A puny wall? Do they truly think that can keep us out?” she asks, drawing her sword and making ready to advance. Superman stops her though as he sees things that she couldn’t. Not with her eyes.

“Not just a wall” he explains. “Lead plated and if that glow that seems to come off of it is anything to go by, it’s encased with Kryptonite. The walls are also manned with turrets and guns of some kind. I see men scurrying to them now. Like little ants to defend their hive”.

“So do we attack?” the Amazon asks, being the blunt tool that constantly wished to be dashed against any object. “No. Not yet. Cyborg...Grodd...I want you to gather up as much information as possible about that wall. A little reconnaissance in force”.

“Diana...are your sisters ready?”

The woman smirks maliciously and nods. “They are always ready for war Superman”.

“Of course, how can I forget”.

“A masculine failing” she teases.

He takes it in good stride and simply looks back at what was now Fortress Gotham. They’d been planning...whatever this was for months. He knew Lex, and he knew that underestimating the man was not a good idea.

‘He knows your weaknesses’ he reminds himself.

Still, the Batman was an unknown quality. No matter. Soon he would know all he needed, and when he did? He’d crush Gotham, the last true bastion of resistance.


	18. Chapter 18

**_One Week Later, Gotham City_ **

They waited with baited breath, the remaining citizens of Gotham. Information had been floating around with the speed of an individual breath leaving everyone in a relative state of confusion. But apparently, that confusion was going to be put to rest.

Lex Luthor had announced that he would speak, and speak he did.

They were all glued to their television sets, wondering about the walls and armed men that surrounded them. Many had already decried the overnight police state that seemed to have descended upon the city.

They were about to realize the gravity of the situation.

“Gotham City” he begins, seated in front of a camera at a recording studio. “You know who I am so I wont waste time with introductions. What you see around you, surrounding you and partitioning our fair city from the rest of the world is a wall. That much is clear. What you most likely don’t know is that that wall is to keep you safe”.

He collects himself, trying to keep his words on task. 

“For some time now, a force has been acting with alarming quickness to subdue the governments of Earth and hoist them all under one banner. His own. That threat has a name. Superman and his so called Justice League” he explains.

“You haven’t heard much about it because a member of their team, Cyborg, otherwise known as Victor Stone, has cast an effect block over what we here in the United States saw. Our own government was complicit in this scheme, first out of fear of what you, the people, would do in reaction to it, but later in direct compliance with Superman. This may come as a shock to you but as of this moment, Gotham is its own independent nation.

The camera pans away to what appears to be a massive hydroponics lab, with sprouts already growing. “For months we, that is Lexcorp and Wayne Enterprises, have been preparing for this eventuality. We had to keep it secret lest our enemies know of our plans. But now? Let me tell you the full truth. Gotham is at war, but we are also well prepared to meet this challenge head on”.

The camera moves to yet another position, showcasing a cattle pen contained underground. “We are able to provide food indefinitely, having created a sustainable bionome underground. Rationing will still be put into effect on some products”.

Like a merchant going over his wares, Lex explains the leaps and bounds he’d made in ensuring Gotham’s defensive capabilities, not only in weapons but in feeding, housing and clothing the people. 

“Mr. Wayne cannot be here with me to discuss the issue, but if he were he’d be able to speak on the merits and assistance that Wayne Enterprises has covertly supplied. I want you to know, even if I have only lived here amongst you a short time, I consider this city my own, and you, her people, my brothers and sisters in arms. At this time, anyone who wishes to leave, who does not wish to take part in this great battle for the American values we hold so dear, may go”.

He raises his hands and then lowers them, sighing to himself on live television. “I’m sorry. This all sounds rather curt and probably a lot more frightening than is wise right now. Let me assure you. We’re going to try and do what’s right. We want to. I don’t know where this is going to end” he admits. 

“I have no crystal ball that can tell you if we’ll succeed or not. But what I do want to ask is if you support Superman, or yourselves? Should our government be of our own choosing, or should it be dictated to by one single man and his group of cronies? Even if that man is Superman?”

Gotham’s families were taking a moment to really mull that over, and most of them knew their answers to the affirmative or negative immediately. Lines were drawn, though they didn’t know what that fully meant.

Humans have the unnatural ability to choose their camps with ease.

“For now, I’ll leave you to answer that. Just know that for now, until any further action is taken, our city is safe under the watchful eye of what I call the Alamo system. Guns and anti aircraft infused with Kryptonite. I will now turn you over to president Harvey Dent. Thank you”.

Lex moves off of the air and the camera pans in on Harvey. For now though, Lex couldn’t stop to listen to what the man said. Undoubtedly it would be important, maybe even might be remembered as one of the greatest speeches ever given. But he didn’t have time for that now.

He had more prep work to do. He also had to get to Wayne Manor as quickly as possible.

He had a funeral to attend.

**_Three Days Prior, Gotham Morgue_ **

“You think that this turning of the wheel will make him jolly, I can assure you your task will end in folly”.

“Be silent demon” the priest whispers back to the voice that emanates from within him. The only sign that all wasn’t what it appeared to be with the man was the shadow behind him upon the wall. “His powers have revealed themselves. I sensed it”.

He sneaks across the hallway, clinging to the corners. He knew that there was very light security at the GCPD morgue, especially at this time of night but he still had to be careful. “Trusting a boy with so large a task conceals a fear that even you may not mask”.

He sees the door at the end of the hallway, one that would contain the young Ms. Wayne’s body. With a quick look around he rushes forward to it and opens the door, slipping inside and closing it behind him before anyone else could see. 

“Alright….”.

He looks up and down the rows of bodies, shaking his head at the senseless loss of life that had followed the heretic’s attack upon the city. He reads the nametags wrapped around the toes of the bodies and tries to not shiver as he approaches the rear end. 

“Blast it’s cold”.

“Best for the corpse, as in the warmth it warps”.

“I do not need a biology lesson from you demon. Silence”.

He sees the sheet he was looking for and sighs as he pulls it back. Barbara Gordon-Wayne was laying there, her skin devoid of all color, making her vibrant hair stand out all the more because of it. 

He had never liked the girl specifically in life. She was loud, crude and flaunted the rules set before her at every opportunity set before her. Still...his heart ached at seeing her like this. He reaches out and brushes his hand over her forehead, closing his eyes and reflecting.

“Even you cannot bring back the dead, so banish all thoughts of trying from your foolish head”.

“I can though” Jason Blood responds with, reaching out to pluck a string of hair from the girl’s head. He holds it between his fingers, letting it flutter for a moment before he raises his other hand and it rapidly straightens as if a bolt of electricity had run through it.

“Fac Nobis animam hanc tamen Fregellani sustinuerunt”.

With that he throws the lock of hair out of his hands and watches as it flutters to the ground. It grows as soon as it touches, and a blob emanates out from what remained. It grows upwards and upwards, rising like a skyscraper in miniature. When it reaches the man’s chest it stops growing, but the movement does not.    
  
The blob forms, as if clay and he can make out the rough facial features of the girl who laid lifeless on the table. Soon she was standing before him, though not her and most certainly not alive. 

Her eyes were just as dead as the corpse’s on the table and she swayed on her feet.

“A simulacrum? Ohh how evil, such work will bring you down in God’s eyes to naught but a weevil”.

“I do what I have to” Jason sniffs disdainfully, hating how the demon could laugh with such conviction at his folly. He reaches out onto the table, taking the girl in his arms after he wraps her in her sheets to cover her nudity.

“You” he says, turning back to the fake corpse which follows his commands slothily. “Lay on this table”.

The simulacrum moves up onto the cold steel slowly and lays back, though its arms were hanging lifelessly over the sides.

“God dammit”.

“Best watch your swears or on the day of Judgement God might give you a scare”.

Jason clucks, hating that he’d spent almost two thousand years with this voice constantly in his ear. Managing to cradle the girl’s body in one hand, he moves forward and is able to reposition the false corpse so that it appears as if nobody had even disturbed her.

She continues to stare blankly up at the ceiling, eyes unmoving and unseeing as they would forever be. Jason places his hands over her face and whispers the counter charm. “Morietur”.

The simulacrum goes limp and Jason is able to quickly fetch another sheet to cover the body. Lastly, he plucks the identifying toe tag from Barbara and wraps it about her replacement. With all his work done and all bases covered he turns to leave, though instead of the door he simply advances upon a brick wall.

“What now? Your plan has run its course and yet still you’re naught but a walking hearse”.

“Shh...let me focus”.

He looks at the wall and whispers “Fosghail mo Shlighe”.

The bricks twist and turn, opening into a pathway down into the darkness. “Hmm a neat trick, one most ancient. Go though, for I have become impatient”.

“It’s an old Gaelic spell if you wished to know” Jason explains, the Demon only grunting in acknowledgement before posing his next question. “Where do we go now that we have ascended into the cold ground? Is it hell that you seek, I can assure you it is not for the meek”.

“I have found a...pool. One that gives life and restores all of one’s body to them” Jason explains, stepping even deeper into the cavern created by his magic. “Ahh a Lazarus pit, if it was naught else I would’ve thrown a fit”.

Jason was a bit taken aback by that, but by now he should know that the demon had access to all sorts of ancient knowledge.

“What can you tell me of this pit? I have only read of it in tomes and stumbled upon this one by accident”.

“I can tell you that you are making a mistake, turn back before it is too late, otherwise...thou shall break”.

Jason frowns at that. “Not very comforting”.

“Heed my words Blood” the demon warns, for once sounding like he actually means it. “If you do this, you shall not gain his trust, in fact your name would be nothing but mud”.

“I have to risk it” he explains. “Jason mustn’t be alone for all that he’s about to experience. A loving touch or a gentle kiss from the one he loves will keep him steady”.

“You will find that once touched by the waters of the pit, a love may grow cold instead of bold”.

“You are a pessimist” Blood exclaims.

“No...I am simply telling you the truth I claim, for continued survival is my only aim”.

Jason ignores the ramblings of the demon within him and keeps pressing on into the darkness. He knew that he had to do this. This was the right thing. 

It would work.

**_Themyscira, Present Day_ **

“Daughter...you have returned from man’s world”.

Diana makes no move to show respect to her Queen and mother, something no other Amazon would dare even think of trying. “Yes. I have”.

Hippolyta regards her imperiously. “And tell me, what is it that you have learned?”

“Superman has overtaken most of the world. His forces are still fighting in the East in a place called Russia. Soon this will come to an end. However, he has encountered resistance in a city in the United States called Gotham”.

Hippolyta turns to look out over the sea that surrounded the island, the waves lapping gently up against the almost pure white Greek sands. It was a beautiful day in the Aegean, hidden away from the conflict that was tearing the world asunder at this very moment.

She stands, moving from her throne. “One single city shouldn’t prove much a problem for this...Superman” she sneers, “if he is as powerful as you claim”.

Diana scowls in response, despising the woman all the more for what she considered her lack of imagination and weakness. “It is not quite so simple” Diana explains. “He has but one weakness and yet the city is clad in it. It must fall by more conventional means, of which an army is required”.

“Then let him bash his army against the walls of this city”.

Diana crosses her arms over her chest and leans up against a marble column. “An army such as the one you possess would topple the city in hours” she says, as if she was only commenting upon the state of affairs.

“No”.

“You have not even heard what he is willing to offer…”.

“I said no” Hippolyta seethes, the blond woman angrily turning on her daughter. “I do not know why you insist on me prostrating myself before a man!”.

“He has a vision for this world!”

“Then let him realize it” Hippolyta sighs, desperately trying to reach her daughter. “I do not know why you have changed so much. Is life here in paradise so abysmal? So awful that you wish for us to involve ourselves in a war we have no stake in it? You have split the world into two spheres of influence, Superman and Themyscira. What happens when this mad tyrant comes for us?”

Diana readies herself for what would undoubtedly be the worst possible thing to say to the woman at that moment. “He wont. I have allied Themyscira with the Justice League”.

“You what?”

Hippolyta’s face was twisted in rage and Diana says nothing to cool it. “HOW DARE YOU?!” she screams. “I am the Queen of the Amazons. Only I have the right to make treaties and enforce them! What have you promised? Tell me!”

She moves forward and grasps Diana by the throat, lifting her off of the ground. The dark haired woman was shocked. She was strong, she knew that. Being a demigod had its perks, but she was nothing in comparison to her mother.

“Our...army...will assist him...and he…..has...dominion over our island” She chokes out.

  
Hippolyta drops her to the floor, letting her lay there upon the hard marble warmed by the sun. She turns away from her daughter, trying to hide her shame. “You...you have attempted to strip me of my queenship? My title? My Hera blessed gift? And tried to make me but a vassal of this...man”.

She was gripping the marble bannister that lined the cliffside ferociously, so much so that cracks began to appear within it. Diana slowly gets up off the floor, prepared for a fight with a woman she once loved. 

“Yes. It is the only way….”.

“Be gone from me daughter!” 

Hippolyta refuses to turn and simply looks back out across the sea, trying to calm the rage within her heart. “We will now fight this Superman and you will bear the mark of dishonor for breaking your word to him” she says simply before adding, “unless you wish to stand with him against your sisters. In which case, you break your contract with Hera and will bear that mark”.

She is silent, glaring at the woman’s back. ‘Why can’t she see? WHY CAN’T SHE SEE?’

“As I said, be gone from me before my heart grows fully cold upon you”.

Diana doesn’t resist, nor does she want to. She wants to be away from the woman whom she considered a failed queen. A queen who had not loved her people enough to expand their holdings. A queen who had denied them their sacred birth right to rule over the world. 

She walks down the steps of the cliffside which meander down into a tunnel that leads out into the settled city of Themyscira. She doesn’t take that continuing path however, and when she enters the cavernous tunnel, she makes a turn to the right down into the temple of Demeter. 

At this time of day there were few worshippers offering up their prayers to the goddess, and the only one who turned to see her was her old friend Lydia. “Diana!”.

The dark haired woman couldn’t help but glower at the poor girl who had once been her confidante and lover. “Lydia”.

The woman’s face falls at the lack of positive response and as she stands in front of her fellow Amazon she uncomfortably fiddles with her stola. “I...well..I haven’t seen you in such a long time”.

“I’ve been busy”.

“In man’s world no doubt. Tell me, are they truly as backwards as the Queen says?” the red haired woman asks. “No. In fact, it is the Queen who is backwards”.

“Diana!” Lydia says scandalized. 

“It’s true” Diana doubles down. “They understand power, and how to wield it. Especially Superman. Our Queen is…”.

“I...I do not wish to argue Diana...I have missed you”.

She reaches out for the woman’s hand, taking it gently and rubbing her fingers between her own. Soon she brings to her face, her cheek specifically. “I yearn for your touch. I wish us to be together, like we used to”.

Diana yanks her hand away, enraged at the presumptuousness of the girl. “After you stood against me how can I ever stand with you?”

Lydia had been the deciding vote at the Amazon’s most recent symposium in which they discussed an alliance with Superman. Diana thought for sure, after winning over so many of her sisters, that Lydia would stand against the Queen and demand an alliance. She had spent all night, whispering sweet nothings into the girl’s ear of what she would gift to her when they stood master of the world.

  
At the time Lydia had only turned away and blushed, but Diana had thought it only due to humility and embarrassment. But that day...that day Lydia looked at her with apologetic eyes and cast her vote for Hippolyta’s proposition. 

Diana would never forgive her, nor forget the apologetic look in her eyes as Hippolyta embraced as she refused to embrace her daughter. “Saviour of the Amazons” Hippolyta had dubbed her. 

“Diana I did not agree with what you want” Lydia pleads. “This world...I do not wish to rule it. I only want it to exist. Please..you must understand”.

“All the gifts I promised you. Tell me, Hippolyta’s whore, what did she give you in return for your treason?”

Tears were leaking down Lydia’s face now and she shakes her head. “I would never betray you! And I did not want your gifts. I only wished for you. And here we can have each other, forever. Why risk this?”

Diana pushes the girl away and advances into the temple, having nothing further for her to say at the moment. Lydia makes to go after her, but stops at the sight of her back. Instead she has to fight a war against her very own tears.

She slowly leaves the cavern, and Diana is left alone.

She casts one look up at the golden statue of the goddess of the harvest, one of the most sacred beings beside Hera to the Amazons, and spits upon her foot. “Curse be upon you Demeter”.

She leaves the shrine and moves to the immediate left behind it where a cut in the rock face enters into what appears to be another cavern. She slips through and makes her way with practiced ease towards the far corner. She grasps a torch and lights it by striking a flint quickly against the rock.

When she has light, she moves through the cave. She knew exactly where she was going though, and the torch was more out of habit than necessity. No Amazon tread here, not seeing a need too. She did. 

  
And had for years.

When she enters a large bowl shaped opening, she steps into it and moves towards the far wall upon which a stone face sits, etched into the rock. It was screaming, grimacing even in its lifelessness. 

A fabled entrance to the Underworld where the dark god Hades held dominion. They had all been covered up, eons ago, to keep the inhabitants of that dead world inside. 

She places the torch down upon one of the holders within the wall. “Beloved...can you hear me?”

“Yes Diana…”.

The breathy whisper comes out of the mask’s mouth, and the woman smiles widely as she moves to her knees and presses her ear to it. “I am so glad...today has been...taxing”.

“As all things are with you my dear. But as a daughter of Zeus you cannot expect your life to be easy” the voice chides.

“Zeus. As useless as my mother”.

“Yes quite. An evil man who refused the great gift I offered him. A pity” the man whispers.

Diana caresses the face, pretending as if it belonged to the one whom she was speaking to. “Tell me, how do your struggles go in the world? Are you winning?”

“Every day but my mother refuses to see the glory and riches we can cover ourselves in!” she exclaims angrily. “She has pledged to attack and wage war on Superman. I am astonished”.

  
“Well...to be fair? You did go and do a lot of this behind her back”.

The chuckle that he lets off annoys the woman and she turns away, angrily pouting. “I had hoped to goad her into action”.

  
“Diana...you are so new to strategy”.

“I AM NOT STUPID!” she roars.

“I did not say you were my dove” the man comforts. “Please, I would trade all of Olympus to hold you in my arms. Never think that I believe you to be stupid. You are the sun and the moon in my eyes, the one who puts even the beauty of Aphrodite to shame. Who would crush Athena in the art of war”.

Diana blushes and remembers all the nights she’d sit here listening to the man and his sweet, honeyed words. She fell in love with him, knowing that it was wrong. And now? She wouldn’t stop until he was freed from Tartarus.

“Am I forgiven or should I continue to wax poetically of my desire for you?”

She smiles despite herself and moves in closer once more. “You are forgiven”.

“Thank you my beauty. Now, as for our...Hippolyta problem. She refuses to yield to you, and as Queen of the Amazons we need her to yield. We are faced with an impossible task...if one of the pieces remains in play”.

Diana quirked her eyebrow at that, hearing the insinuation in the voice.

“Perhaps...a new queen would be better suited to our needs? One who is beautiful, young, vibrant. Who hasn’t lost touch of what the Amazons need?”

“Are you suggesting...I...kill her?”

“Yes” the voice whispers harshly. “I...I can’t”.

“Why Diana?”

“Because...she’s my mother”.

“Aw, such tender love for the woman” the voice says gently, treading carefully. “A loyal daughter. But let me ask, is it not decreed by Amazonian law that loyalty should be returned with loyalty? What loyalty has she shown you? What tender love and affection have you gained from her? What token of esteem or gift?”

Diana looks away, not wanting to reflect on this, but the mere act of looking away does not stop the voice from speaking. “Nothing. She rewards those who are less than you. She values their council over yours. My dear...you would make a more fitting queen”.

“I...I do not know”.

“Yes you do” he explains. “And as queen...you can release me. I can hold you in my arms, kiss away your worries and serve you. We’d make the sweetest of love, and our children? Ohh just imagine how beautiful they’ll be”.

“Will...will you truly stay with me?”

“Always Diana. Always”.

She nods to herself, mulling it over. “I’ll do it. Tonight. I’ll slit her throat while she sleeps. The law of Hera mandates that I become Queen following her”.

“Good. Then your heart is set?”

She looks up the path she took to this room, knowing that when she walks out of it she’ll be a completely different woman. Her path was set and her eyes reflected that icy determination.

“Yes”.

“Good. There is one more thing my dear…”.

“Anything” she says, knowing that what was asked of her aside from killing her mother would undoubtedly be worth the price to be paid. She’d agree to anything for him.

“You must become like me” he says. “You must taste of flesh, and reap the power that comes from taking another’s strength in such a way”.

“Ohh…”.

She was truly shocked by that but...she knew that one day, to be beside him, she’d have to. “When Zeus denied the gift I gave him, the finest gift I could ever sacrifice, my own son, I did not” he explains. “Before I was captured by the gods and cast into Tartarus, I tasted liberally of the flesh of man, woman and child. Nothing gave me greater power than to drain their life force! Their souls” the voice says, practically salivating.

“Mankind has always denied such...tastes, but only out of fear. Consuming the flesh of an animal is nothing. But the soul of a man? Your receive his strength”.

“I…”.

“Diana, you must!” he urges. “You must partake of the flesh of one or more of your sisters to have the strength to do what must be done. To free me! Do you not wish me to be free? Do you want me to be forever sealed behind the barred gates of Hades’ fiery realm?”

“No! No! My love...I...I’ll do it”.

She gelt guilt well up within her, but she had already resigned herself to this. ‘Great victory cannot come without great sacrifice’ she says. ‘Your sisters, whoever of them you consume, shall live on, content in the power that their sacrifice has given their queen’.

“Good...my love” he whispers urgently. “I must go. My torture continues. Please, hurry. I have lingered much too long in this gods forsaken land”.

She clings to the stone mask and kisses it, desperately wanting it to be the man she loved instead of cold hard stone. “I shall free you! And you will rule beside me, not as servant but as king of the Amazons”.

It was a bold claim to power, especially to make for a man. But she made it, and she meant it.

She hears his screams as he’s pulled away, and she fights the tears she holds at the thought of his suffering which at this point was legendary.

She walks out of the room and quickly advances through the tunnel out into the open shrine to Demeter. She was shocked to still find Lydia there, waiting for her apparently. When the woman’s eyes land on her, she advances angrily on Diana. 

“I did not speak my peace to you Diana!”

She wants to smack the girl aside, not caring for their past relationship. In her mind it existed for nothing but pleasure, and the lies she told her when they lied together were just practice for when she had her true lover beside her.

Her eyes widen in realization though.

‘She can serve me and my pleasure once more…’.

She smiles disarmingly, and reaches out to grasp the woman’s upper arms. “Lydia...I must apologize for what I said before” she says, not meaning a word of it. ‘You are getting much better at speaking with a serpent’s tongue’ she muses to herself.

Lydia was completely overwhelmed, and it showed on the look of surprise that melded to her face. “My dear...I was foolish. To reject your love only on the grounds of a petty disagreement”.

She hid her rage well, and even if she wanted to run Lydia through with a sword it would do to seal her fate with a kiss. Lydia throws her arms around Diana’s shoulders and smiles brightly. “Ohh Diana! I’m so glad you see!” she pulls back and kisses the woman’s lips, remaining close to touch her face.

“I would follow you to Tartarus and back. Even if I had to vote against what you believed in, you have to realize that you are the one I love. I’d never betray you Diana”.

“Ohh that is so pleasant to hear” Diana exclaims, pecking her cheek. Lydia didn’t notice the fact of Diana’s supposed love being so cool and limited as she didn’t want to. Instead she leans in for another kiss.

The princess stops her though, a finger placed upon her lips. “Not now, and not here” she whispers. “Tonight, at Persephone's drop. I shall make a meal”.

Lydia swoons.

“Diana, that is so romantic!”

“Yes well…”.

“I shall meet you there tonight then” Lydia says, not realizing that she was a fly who had fallen right into Diana’s trap. “I will reward you in all possible ways” she whispers into the woman’s ear. “You will never think of me as a traitor again my sweet. You have me. All of me”.

And with that Lydia moves away, blushing almost feverishly and leaving Diana to stand there alone. Slowly a smile comes to her face, one that speaks of impending sadism she had planned and not of a lover’s excitement. 

‘This is going to be easier than I’d hoped’

**_Wayne Manor_ **

“Is he still out there?”

“He hasn’t moved”.

Bruce and Harleen look out of the window of the man’s study, out onto the grounds of Wayne Manor. They had a perfect view of Bruce’s parent’s gravestone...and now? Their daughter’s as well.

Jason stood in front of it, his hands in his pockets as still as a statue. It was as if he wasn’t even alive. The dirt was freshly disturbed, the body having been interred within the Earth over two hours ago. Still..Jason kept his watchful vigil over the stone.

It was inscribed “Barbara Gordon-Wayne” with her birth and death dates below it. That didn’t matter. No. What mattered was what was written beneath it. “Beloved daughter, sister, niece and best friend”.

Underneath that was a bible verse. “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted”.

Harleen puts her hand on Bruce’s shoulder and turns him away to look at her. He wants to resist, being unable to look his wife in the eyes. Still, he doesn’t have a choice. When he does, their gazes and meet and both instinctively know the pain the other was feeling.

Harleen’s eyes had never truly dried but fresh tears spring forth, coming from a pool that they were convinced would never empty as they mourned their daughter in all but blood.

He reaches out and gathers her into his arms, and he lets himself go as well. He cries like he hasn’t since the day his parents were murdered. The two lean on each other as they always have and cling to each other in the fear that their grief would swallow them whole.

“I’m so sorry Harleen…”.

“Bruce...this isn’t your fault”.

“It is” he says. “I should’ve seen it. I did see it. The anger in her eyes. The way she pushed herself. She never got over what happened to her dad. She never compartmentalized it and came to terms...she never…”.

“Puddin….Barbara….Barbara was...I don’t know” she explains. “I’m a psychiatrist and I don’t know. She was hurting in ways I don’t think we ever could’ve fixed. We did the wrong thing by letting her become Robin” she says, agreeing with him on that point.

“But...we have to move on sweetie..we have the others who’re counting on us right now. Jason especially”.

Bruce straightens and works at drying his own eyes. He looks and Harleen and nods. “About Jason..Harleen...he can’t ever be Robin again”.

She turns her head and nods.

“I wanted to say that same thing. We can’t lose any more of our children. We’re adults. We can make these decisions but it was wrong for us to let them do it. Maybe, in a way, we even forced them” she thinks, wondering if the effect of even seeing their parents strap up into their suits to fight crime had been enough to seal Barbara’s death sentence.

‘No. Stop...we can’t dwell. Move forward’.

Bruce is quiet and instead of saying anything he just looks up at the portrait that hung on the wall next to the painting of his parents.

“Come on Bruce. We have a house full of people who’re scared. Mary and Martha...they need us right now. So does Jason”.

He nods and they leave the office slowly, trying to put on a stoic face despite the utter devastation they felt within them. The painting that hung on the wall was illuminated by the desk lamp which had remained turned on.

It had been commissioned right after the twins were born, and shower Bruce and Harleen standing, a baby in each of their arms. Jason stood in front of his mother, a young boy with her hand on his shoulder, while Barbara was in front of Bruce. 

They were all smiling, happy at having found each other and being able to come together in a world that offered little in the way of comfort or happiness. They had it, and it was forever gone.

The portrait would remain a glimpse into a lost world. A world they could only remember in dreams yet never return to past the rising of the sun. 

Outside, Jason continues to look upon the grave of his best friend and his lover. Slowly he moves to his knees and traces his finger over the words. “Barbara...I’m so sorry. I was supposed to protect you. Keep you safe” he says tearfully. “I promised you I would. I messed up. If you’re hearing this please...forgive me”.

He stands up, his mind going back to all the family in the manor who were hurting as well. He needed to be strong, but part of him didn’t want to leave Barbara here alone. When he looks over the stone, he thinks of another word that should’ve been added but couldn’t. 

The official story was that Barbara had been killed at the manor by Jester’s attack. Easy placement of the body and the setting of the crime scene was mixed with a use of Ivy’s pheromones to induce amnesia within the attackers. 

Nobody could be charged with a crime they didn’t commit and Barbara’s true cause of death wasn’t revealed. It was a “win-win” as they would say.

Jason looks back at the grave and smiles, speaking the word he wishes was on the stone. “Hero”.

He rushes back to the house, unable to contain the tears which fall so quickly down his face. Crying had been done in boatloads by this point and it was doubtful that it would end anytime soon.

**_Justice League Forward Assault Base, Outside of Fortress Gotham_ **

“Superman”.

“Yes Zatanna?” 

  
Clark was tired. More tired than he’d ever felt before. He was also frustrated at the defiance Gotham City was broadcasting to him. Following Lex Luthor’s decree, a trickle of civilians had left, opting to join Superman instead.

He knew this wasn’t a victory.

With less mouths to feed the already adequate resources of Gotham would be put into overdrive. Cyborg had been running analysis all day and had found precious little they could use. What he did find was that a verifiable army under the command of Lex Luthor had been assembled.

“I wanted to make my report” the woman hisses breathily, the mask she wore obstructing her voice. He knew why she wore it, and indeed saw what was underneath.

‘Sheesh, better off if she does wear it’ he thinks to himself. 

“Anything?”

He hated that he sounded so needy and hopeful, but in the end he knew that nobody had really cared. It was frightening really. How successful he’d been at walking the tightrope to world dominance. Most countries? They caved instantly.

With how reliant they were on the worldwide web and Cyborg shutting it down?

He separated his enemies and fought them one on one at his leisure.

He didn’t expect Gotham to be any different. 

That was a mistake.

“No Superman” the woman admits, taking a seat. “Unfortunately the city is as bared to me and Dr. Fate as it is to you. Constantine no doubt” she seethes.

“Why do you hate him so much?” he asks. “You’ve never told us though I’m beyond curious”.

“We were once...intimate. We walked through the realms of the unknown together, seeking out forbidden and ancient knowledge to buoy our power. However, I was the only one willing to make the sacrifices necessary”.

“And whatever...sacrifice this was, it causes you to hide your face because of...well, what’s under it?”

The woman tilts her head and reaches around to the back, undoing the string that held the mask tightly in place. When it falls forward Clark sees the sight he hadn’t wanted to lay his eyes on the first time he saw it.

Instead of a normal mouth, Zatanna had a wide set of razor sharp teeth that interconnected with one another. She looked much more like a shark than a person at this point, and Clark can’t help but recoil.

“What’s the matter? I don’t have pretty teeth?”

She hisses and snaps out, reminding him of a charging crocodile. He wasn’t afraid of her in the traditional sense. He knew that if he really wanted too he could reach out and snap her neck. But he chooses not too.

She replaces the mask and the conversation returns to a much more normal tone. “He was disgusted by me. The sacrifice I’d made and who I’d made it with. My soul, such a pittling thing, for power. Power beyond my imagination” she says. “The problem was that I’d wagered wrong. I’d offered the elder god John’s soul as well, thinking he’d join me. When he was made aware? He attacked me and thus I was robbed of the power that was meant to be mine. Now...I must catch him and offer him up as a sacrifice”.

“By when?”

“Before the one I made a deal with returns to this mortal plane. If not? Well...I don’t wish to dwell on what will happen to me by then”.

Superman nods to himself, finally having a clearer grasp of the woman’s motivations. ‘Could be a way to play this right’ he thinks to himself. ‘After we win, Zatanna is going to pose more of a problem than a help. Also, who the hell makes a deal with a demon? An idiot...and a liability. We’ll find a way to remove her from the board when the dust settles’.

“What of Diana? The Amazon?” Zatanna asks, breaking the man out of his thoughts. 

“She’s on Themyscira, apparently trying to convince her mother of the wisdom of an alliance with the Justice League”.

“Do you think she’ll succeed?”

“Between you and me?” he asks conspiratorially, leaning in. He smiles suddenly and shakes his head as soon as she is close enough. “No. But I also have a feeling that Diana isn’t the kind of woman who takes no for an answer. If my bets pay off, and I sure hope they do, Themyscira will have a new queen”.

“Hmm and I suppose you’re angling for a position in that queen’s bed?” Zatanna teases out, sensing the man’s lust.

“I wouldn’t exactly turn it down” he teases.

“Hmm, interesting”.

“Why, not jealous are you?”

“Not at all” she says. “Just thinking of something that has to do with the princess. After all, if she’s queen of Themyscira, she’d have control over the entrance to Tartarus would she not?”

“I guess so. Don’t really know what Tartarus is” Clark admits.

“Ohh Superman...we have much to consider” Zatanna says, licking her lips under the mask.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a few disclaimers:  
> 1). I am not forcing religion down anyone's throat with this story. There are religious themes across a spectrum with characters having their own individual belief systems. I have elements of Christianity, paganism and soon atheism with the advent of the Soviets insofar as they are there.   
> 2). There is a graphic description of cannibalism in this chapter so....if you're not okay with that skip the very last part.
> 
> Sorry guys. Just a little off key because of a particularly surly experience. Anyways, a few book recommendations. Three Jokers is excellent, and even has a Barbara/Jason Moment. Old Lady Harley, while wackey and zany, I also found good. 
> 
> Anyways, I hope this chapter is good. It was hard to write for me because I wasn't in the right head space. Love you guys.

**_Lazarus Pit Beneath Gotham, Three Days Prior_ **

Whoever had last been here had obviously used it as a place of worship. Strange carvings and totems, most likely Miagani, dotted the cavernous expanse and casted an ominous glow over the whole proceedings.

He hefts the body back in his arms to reposition her, the weight starting to pull him down just a bit. With the corpse readjusted he could move forward, down towards the bubbling pool of ominous green water.

“I am reminding you that this task is pointless and the outcome of which will disappoint us. Those who try to work evil through good, may find themselves with an executioner’s hood”.

“Is that your way of telling me the path to hell is paved with good intentions?”

The demon remains silent, not saying anymore on the subject for the moment. “We don’t have a choice Etrigan” Jason says, unwrapping the girl from her covering. “Jason has experienced too much tragedy. Too much loss. I fear without her….he might not find the courage to make the sacrifices he must”.

With that, the man steps forward towards the edge of the pool and kneels down. Slowly he lowers Barbara’s corpse into the water and pushes her out a bit into the middle, letting the slight current pull her. Her body sinks slowly, and soon submerges completely.    
  
Now?   
  
He just had to wait.

He didn’t wait long though, as suddenly a pain burst out from within him sends the priest to his knees. He’s gasping for breath, at first not understanding what was going on inside of him. “Etrigan…” he shouts, watching as something was happening in the water. “What are you doing?”

“To disrupt God’s plan is my aim, and subverting you is but a game. In rankerous halls of hate, I will use her rage to sate”.

“No...don’t!”

“Speak the unholy phrase, or I shall set your mortal soul ablaze!”

He knew that the demon was insistent on getting out, but he had to stop him. ‘Who knows what he’ll do to Barbara! What are his plans for unnnngggghh” he screams out in pain as the demon indeed summons his massive reserve of power to set his extremities on fire. 

“Your time for choice is closing fast, make the right call or your life shall soon be past” Etrigan chuckles out. Jason knew he had no choice. If he died, and the demon most assuredly would kill him to advance his aims, there would be nobody left to ensure Jason would rise to his fated position.

Fists clenched and his eyes shut, he opens his lips and begins to speak. “Begone, begone oh form of man, bring forth the demon, Etrigan”.

And with that he throws his head back and roars, his entire body expanding as it’s encased in flame. A figure emerges through the flame, dark and foreboding. “I have returned to this mortal plain, for the time allowed, I shall spread pain”.

As the flames diminish and the yellow skinned demon stands there is his resplendent horror, a figure bursts out of the pool, screaming as her body writhes.

“AHHHHHH!”

She quickly looks down at herself, trying to see where her wounds were as was only natural for a disorientated person. She finds none, though she continues to scream and sob, her head in her hands. 

“Hmm now Blood, you have given me a gift, one which might aid in the opening of the rift. In your desire to help the boy, you’ve given me the power to render him but a toy”.

The demon moves forward and seizes the girl by the arm, not bothered at all about the waters of the Lazarus pit which laps at his body. She screams even louder, and begins to try and use the training imbedded in her muscle memory to break free of his grasp. She throws her body upwards and delivers a kick to the side of Etrigan’s head.

He shakes from the impact, but not much. 

“Your hits are like that of a gnat, surely with the training you’ve received you can do better than that”.

Barbara just looks on in wide eyed horror, screaming in pain. “Hmm I tire of your trifling cries. Would be a shame if if Barbara Gordon dies...again”.

He drags the still struggling girl to a wall where he pressed inward on a brick. In a repeat of the spell that brought the three here, a tunnel forms, though this tunnel was only a few feet deep. At the end of it was a portal, dark orange and swirling red in color. “I have foiled your plans blood, and take this girl as a prize” the demon begins, raising the figure into the air. “On the morning sun’s flood, she will rise, though her path to hell is of your fault I can surmise”. He then turns to the girl and with a wicked grin.

“Go forth, child of hate, and make sure to fill thine plate. For when it is over, and your work is done, well..I can finally have fun”.

With that he tosses the girl through the portal, freeing himself from her struggles. He knew where that portal led and he knew that she would come back to Gotham...eventually. When the time was right.

“I’ve doomed you Blood, or at least your plans, of which you know, I was never a fan”.

Etrigan turns and looks about, now very bored with his surroundings. “Hmm...a fight is what I seek and in this city almost all are meek. For a fight worthy of my time, I must cross the city line”.

He smiles and with that he is engulfed within flame again, disappearing on his way to wherever it was the Demon sought to fight. He wouldn’t go immediately to the walls of Gotham, for to do so would be to limit the scope of violence.

He could easily kill Superman and his goons but doing so would rob the world of so much delicious violence and suffering.

No. 

He’d seak out...less consequential prey.

**_Wayne Manor_ **

“Jason...can we talk?”

The boy just nods, having been sitting to the side while the assembled mourners, as few as they were, sat around. Bruce places his hand on the boy’s shoulder and escorts him into the hallway. They passed Harleen who was sitting in one of the armchairs, her hand gently going through Mary’s hair as the little girl sniffles in her lap.

The funeral had been tough, especially on the children who really didn’t understand why their big sister or cousin wasn’t home. Harleen makes to get up, also wanting to be there with their son, but Bruce waves her off.

He’d be there for Jason but Mary and Martha and the rest needed them now.

“Bruce…”.

The two men look up to see Lex Luthor, one of the few people outside of the family they’d allowed to attend the funeral besides Lucius Fox and the Dents. “Hello Lex”.

The man was discomforted, but it was clear to see that there was a wish to comfort in his eyes. “I am so sorry for your loss Bruce. I wont pretend to understand what you’re going through but if there is anything I can do....”.

Bruce holds his hand up, knowing that the man meant well but really not in the mood to hear it. Lex nods and looks towards Jason, reaching out a hand for the younger man to shake. “I didn’t exactly want us to meet under these circumstances but I’m Lex Luthor. Let me just say that this city is lucky to have your family. You’re a hero and so was Barbara”.

Jason looks down at the man’s hand as if it was a foreign glyph but eventually he reaches out to take it, giving it a firm shake. “Thank you sir”.

“Just call me Lex. Sir makes me feel old”.

Jason smiles a bit despite himself, deciding that he definitely liked the man who had essentially defended Gotham beside them, though on a different level. “If you’ll excuse us Lex…” Bruce says, really wanting to get to his conversation with Jason.

  
“Of course, of course”.

The CEO of Lexcorp retreats into the group, moving over towards Harleen to undoubtedly give his condolences. 

Bruce couldn’t concern himself with that right now, and he keeps the two moving towards his study. He opens the door and steps in, staying there to ensure Jason follows before closing it behind the two. 

They were left alone, in a place they could more openly discuss what needed to be said. “Jason..have a seat”.

He offers up the chair in front of his desk while Bruce himself remains standing for a moment. He couldn’t keep his eyes away from the paintings that hung there on the wall. Happier times, both of them.

“What did you want to talk about?”

Jason was impatient though he hid it as well as he could. Bruce couldn’t stall this any longer, and the best way to do it was to be as quick as possible. “Jason...you have put on the Robin suit many times and assisted your mother and I in more ways than I can count. You’ve saved this city, you’ve done your part, and for that we have to thank you”.

“But?”

Jason knew that there was something behind those words.

Bruce turns to look him the eye, knowing that he had to be man enough to do that at the very least. “You wont be doing it again. Not as Robin. Not as a vigilante”.

Jason grips the arms of the chair fiercely and tries to fight the panic he was feeling that manifested as if it was a weight upon his chest. “What the hell are you talking about?”.

“Exactly what I said” Bruce says. “Robin is no more. I need you to understand…”.

Jason stands from the chair rapidly and pushes it back with the force of his ascent before slamming his hands, fist down on the desk. “Bull. Shit I’m done” he says fiercely. “I’m still Robin. You’re not taking what Barbara and I built away from us Bruce”.

“Barbara is dead Jason”.

“DON’T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT?!!”

Jason moves away, pacing across the middle of the room like a caged tiger. “And it’s my fault. I know. I shouldn’t have helped her go after them but I knew she would go anyways! I thought if I was there I’d keep her from doing something stupid!”

“Nobody blames you Jason” Bruce says in an attempt to calm the enraged youth. “Nobody. Not a single soul. The truth is that your mother and I….it was a mistake from the beginning to involve you. To let you join our war”.

“What happened to all that bullshit you spewed about family being your strength and being unable to do this alone?” Jason accuses with a pointed finger. “What about that huh? Was that all a lie too?”

“No it wasn’t”.

Bruce was fighting to maintain his own calm though it was hard to witness how angered Jason had become by his words. “You weren’t supposed to make the decision you did son” he says, coming around the desk and moving to the boy, clapping his hands down on Jason’s shoulders. “In many ways...we forced you to become weapons of war. Child soldiers in our little army. It was wrong of us then, and I’m putting an end to it now”.

“Barbara…”.

“This isn’t about Barbara!” Bruce says angrily. “This is about you. Do you understand me? Barbara is dead. I failed her and you and now she’s dead because of it. I refuse to lose my son too! You hear me! My son isn’t going to die!”

Jason slaps the man’s arms away, moving out of his grasp in the rage he felt. “This is about Barbara. This is about keeping what she fought for and wanted alive!”

“Then vengeance is what you’re after?” he asks, hating that he even had to say this. “Jason, I loved Barbara. She was my daughter in everything but blood. We all did. But we all avoided that darkness that was growing inside of her and our inability to face it cost her her life...she wanted vengeance Jason. Not justice”.

“What’s the difference?”

Bruce was taken aback by that and he didn’t know what to say. He knew that the boy was hurt and that most likely he was just speaking through that anger. Still, it frightened him. “If you don’t know the answer to that, then it’s almost certain that I’m making the right decision”.

  
Silence descends over the two and Jason calms but it can still be seen that beneath the surface he was a festering wound of anger and hurt. “So...that’s it then?”

“Yes. It’s final”.

Jason to nods to himself, trying to collect his thought before asking his next question. “And mom and the rest? They all agreed as well?”

“Every single one”.

“Good. I’m glad I didn’t have a say” he says.

“Not in this, no. Not anymore” he says, hating how harsh that sounded to his ears. “You really think that’s a smart move? Benching me when the city is under assault like this? When you need every hand on deck?”

“This war doesn’t need to be fought by the young Jason. We got us into this, and we’re going to get us out of it. You? You have a chance to lead a normal life. You can help in other ways aside from stapping on a mask and jumping into the night”.

Jason doesn’t respond and he knows he doesn’t need to. This wasn’t an open discussion, and he didn’t have the power to veto it. He thinks about going off on his own, being Robin anyways, but he knows that that is a stillborn thought. If Bruce didn’t want him to pick up the mantle again, Bruce would ensure he couldn’t.

‘Everyone else went behind my back to’.

That was another reminder. He wouldn’t just have Batman fighting him, but Batwoman, Black Canary, The Question and most likely the other heroes who had taken shelter in the city if he tried to go it alone. 

He was stuck, and he knew that is Barbara was here she’d have the right plan to punch right on through their opposition.

“I..I know you probably aren’t happy about this but I’m hoping that you can at least understand and in time maybe come to agree...we forced this on you Jason. Maybe you don’t feel that way but in the end you were only a child who didn’t know better. Your mother and I? We should’ve known better”.

“Just...stop”.

  
Jason didn’t want to hear anymore. Within a matter of days he had not only lost his girlfriend and best friend, but he’d lost his major sense of purpose. Now? He didn’t know what to do.

“Let’s go back”.

“Jason you can talk to me…”.

“Let’s just go back outside”.

The young man turns and moves towards the door, obviously not wanting anything more to do with this conversation. Bruce felt better, but not by much. On one hand? Jason was now, hopefully, out of harms way or at least as out of harms way as he could be in this new world. On the other? He knew that things had changed between Jason and the family.

He shakes his head once more and then straightens himself back up. He moves to the door, exits the study and returns to the rest of the assembled group. 

Jason just went up to his room.

**_Themyscira_ **

The fire crackled warmly as Lydia waited next to the pond for her lover. She was giddy with excitement, her mind fixated on a night spent in Diana’s arms. She longed to run her fingers through the woman’s raven black locks, and to feel the softness of her lips upon her own body.

She shivered in anticipation, though the simple stola she wore was also not doing much to keep the cold night air out. She hears movement behind her and turns rapidly, her training as an Amazon kicking into high gear as she throws herself across the sand to where her sword lay.

She retracts it and holds it up warningly against the interloper, of whom she could only make out the vaguest of shadows. 

“Who goes there?”

She just hears a chuckle in response. “Mighty frightened aren’t you Lydia?”

Diana steps into the latent light of the campfire and smiles disarmingly, wearing nothing herself. Lydia is instantly disarmed by the sight of the woman’s nude body, and her eyes trail appreciatively over every curve. Slowly her sword drops, and eventually falls out of her hand completely. 

“Diana...you frightened me”.

  
“Are you still frightened?”

Lydia blushes and moves towards the woman, her hands going to the bare waist and the woman’s cheek. “Not when I’m with you”.

Diana smiles widely, bringing her own hand up to caress the woman’s cheek. “You are entirely too well dressed” she says, reaching up for the pin that held Lydia’s stola upright at her shoulder. She undoes the pin, throwing it away into the darkness.

“Diana!” Lydia giggles, her breasts now exposed. “You’re so eager tonight!”

“Well that is what happens when I have spent so long out of your arms” she lies seamlessly. “Hmm well perhaps I should change that”. Lydia nuzzles her nose against Diana’s while working to wiggle the rest of the way out of her coverings.

Now, fully naked, she presses herself even closer, kissing over Diana’s cheek and neck. “Hmmm...you still taste and smell so sweet”.

  
Taste. That word sent a tingle of excitement and fear through the Amazonian princess. Lydia had just been speaking in metaphor, but after tonight? Diana would know exactly how Lydia tasted. “Hmmm”.

“Ohh...umm…”.

“What?”

Lydia was embarrassed to stop the closeness they had just so recently achieved and that she had been yearning for a return to for many moons, but she couldn’t help but be curious about food.

She was hungry after all.

“You said that you would cook me a meal” she teases. “I was just wondering what my princess was planning for me?”

“Ohh Lydia...you’ll just have to wait my eager little goose” Diana says, knowing that she already had the meal she planned right in front of her. “But first, why should we not go for a little swim? The sky is clear and the moon is bright. You love the water do you not?”

With that Diana separates from the girl and begins to walk towards the water, making sure to sway her hips and thus her well formed rear end for her lover’s appreciation. It worked and the redhead followed every single one of her movements, practically enslaved to the oozing seductiveness that Diana was putting on display for her. 

She had never before been this open, and it had always been Lydia who had to initiate their encounters. But now? It appeared the tables had turned, and she liked it very much.

“Are you coming or not?”

“Ohh! Ohh of course...I’m sorry...I was distracted by your beauty”.

  
Lydia moves into the water slowly, acclimating to the slight chill that instantly raises goosebumps across her skin. “Ooh it’s chilly”.

“Then come here and let me warm you” Diana says, still advancing into the pool until she was at chest level. Lydia rushes to catch up, eager for their contact to resume. As soon as she reaches Diana she throws her arms around her shoulders and smiles. “Caught you”.

“Ohh Lydia” Diana says, stroking up and down the woman’s side. “I’ve actually caught you”.

She rushes into action and clasps her hands around the woman’s throat, lifting her first into the air. Lydia is wide eyed, never having expected an attack as such. She was completely unprepared to fight back and even if she could she could never match the strength of an Amazon.

“Diana...qrrkrk...stop!”

“Why would I do that? I am after all, quite hungry”.

With that she slams the woman into the water and holds her beneath it, the struggles of the well trained warrior essentially meaning nothing. Diana keeps up the pressure, forcing her head underwater with another on the woman’s back to ensure she stays below.

Her arms flail out to the side beneath the clear blue water, and Diana watches and feels as she clutches her legs. If Lydia could speak her words be nothing but pleas and apologies, saving her own life being the only thing on her mind. 

The window for such a miracle was closing, and the prayers she was uttering mentally to her god’s went unanswered. Slowly the woman stops moving, and her arms and legs grow still. Diana was going to be thorough though. She doesn’t let Lydia’s body float up. Not yet. An Amazon was wily and not above such a trick as faking their own death.

She looks around, surveying the beauty of the surroundings. “Hmm, a forest and a waterfall. Not a bad place to die for a treacherous whore”.

Slowly she relaxes her grip, and the unmoving body of Lydia floats to the surface. Her head remains underwater while her body floats, a clear enough sign for Diana. She wraps her fingers around the woman’s ankle and begins to walk back towards the shore, the body being pulled through the water behind her.

“I did promise a meal by the waterfall Lydia” Diana says, licking her lips as she feels what is about to come in her very bones. “I just didn’t specify that you’d be the main course”.

**_Gotham City Executive Mansion_ **

“Is it on?”

Harvey was ready, and he had been so for hours already. This was only his second address to the city and officially? It would be his first address to the world at large. A crack in Cyborg’s network shield had been found and the Justice Society eagerly exploited it.

The people of the world had to know that there was still someone out there who was fighting.

“It is Mr. President” one of his aides says. 

‘Ohh, Mr. President...I really have to get used to that’.

“We’re live in three….two...one” the cameraman says, directing that Harvey should begin to speak. The man catches his breath and nods to himself, conjuring up images of Pamela in his head to assist and urge him on. 

“My fellow Gothamites and...well...everyone else” he says, already feeling that they were not off to a good start. Still, this was a live broadcast and all he could do was try and salvage it. “We’ve been through a lot. A lot of loss and a lot change. All of it has come so quickly that...maybe we haven’t even really had time to catch our breath”.

  
He takes a moment to indeed do that, mulling over his next words. 

“But Gotham is still standing. As a beacon to the free world. That is why I have come to you with such urgency today. You see, the forces arrayed against us are not like you and me. They are people blessed with special abilities. Abilities that they seek to abuse for their own gain. To use in their oppression of the people, those of us who lack these powers. They see as weak, merely their toys to play with because of it”.

He pauses to stare straight into the camera. “They are wrong. And we proved that to them by standing against them. True, we had help. We didn’t do this alone. And we can’t do this alone. That is why I am sending an open message across the world to any metahuman that wishes to join us here in Gotham. We need you, and if you believe in fighting against the Justice League, you need us as well”.

Harvey crosses his hands in front of him on the desk and thinks of something. “A wise man once that said that a house divided against itself cannot stand. Well, we’re inviting you to come under our roof and assist us in standing up to tyranny. A tyranny that will not stop at our governments but will soon advance upon our very own doorsteps. This is a matter of doing what’s right so, regardless of who you are, Gotham is waiting for your assistance”.

“We have called out to you, and now? We want to hear if you’ll listen”.

**_Soviet Arctic Outpost 37, Northern Siberia_ **

“Comrade Knyazev! Comrade, we’ve received word from the United States!”

The man continues to sit at his desk, nursing a half empty bottle of vodka while wearing his ill fitting uniform. “Impossible. The United States has fallen”.

“Nyet, not the United States, I apologize. A city state within it! Gotham City!” the soldier says excitedly. This peaks the man’s interest and he turns to look at the door. “The capitalists? Luthor and Wayne...and their puppet Dent?”

“Da comrade! Da. Apparently they have successfully resisted Superman and are now calling on others to join them!”

“Impossible” the colonel says, taking another swig from the bottle. “Even if we could reach them”, he says before stopping to wipe his lips with the back of his hand. “We have a responsibility to resist. Order 227. We are not to take one step backwards. To abandon our posts would be…”.

“Comrade colonel...we...we are the last”.

“What?”

“We are all that is left of the Soviet army. We tried to wake you before...we sent in Comrade Raina but she sensed that your dreams were….very turbulent” the soldier admits. Colonel Anatoli Knyazev stands, straightening out his uniform and walking to the door. “I am to be informed of what has happened!”

  
The soldier seems to remember who he was in the presence of and snaps into attention, military decorum apparently not having slipped completely. “Da comrade colonel! Please, follow me to the war room”.

The two step out of the colonel’s private quarters and advance down a long hallway. The bunker complex, codenamed Katyusha, was not very populated at this point. Aside from a few soldiers who served as aides and auxiliaries, the last remaining metas were the only ones capable of fighting back. ‘Ever since Red Star’s death...no...no..do not dwell’ he thinks, knowing that he had to stay focused. It was his job as ranking officer to lead these men and women to victory.

‘But to ally with the capitalists?’

The soldier opens a large steel door and gestures for the colonel to follow him inside. He does, and when he approaches he is shocked by what he sees. It appeared that all the remaining soldiers were already packed up, waiting for the order.

“What is going on here?”

A grey skinned woman wearing the grey colored uniform of the special “Unnatural Warfare Department” that had risen in the wake of Zatanna Zatara’s appearance on the battlefield. They had held their own despite a lack of resources and manpower. It was truly impressive.

‘That does not give her the right to make decisions without me’ Anatoli fumes.

“What is the meaning of this comrade Roth?”

The woman snaps into a sharp salute, maintaining a stoic facade and militant demeanor. “I apologize Comrade Colonel. The news we received was most disturbing and our soldiers needed leadership at that exact moment”.

Anatoli bristles at the insinuation but he was too hones to fight it. He knew that he’d long fallen into drink as a way to mask his pain. So many comrades lost, his country in ruins. ‘A third time in two centuries’ he muses before shaking such thoughts away.

“Colonel, Moscow has capitulated. The Premier has been killed and the People’s Commissariat has collapsed” calls the pretty blonde Markovian from her position at a computer. Her uncle, Werner Vertigo, stood beside her, defensive as always. ‘Not too long ago they’d have been labelled counter revolutionaries and shot’ he muses, knowing that their “royal” blood made them suspect in the eyes of the party...well, what was left of the party.

“The Soviet Union has fallen” a soldier whispers from behind.

Raina is quick though, and she turns to rapidly backhand the man, sending him to the floor. Her eyes split ferociously, forming two pairs of red eyes that seem to peer right into his soul. “THE SOVIET UNION WILL NEVER TRULY FALL!” she growls in an otherworldly voice. Slowly she calms, bringing herself back down. Her eyes return to their normal state, with their deep purple hue of her iris’.

“I am sorry comrade…”.

She reaches down and offers the frightened man a hand. Reluctantly he takes it and is pulled up, rejoining the others though now much more wary of what he says aloud. Raina returns her gaze to the rest and simply continues as if nothing had happened. “Colonel Knyazev, we must make an alliance with the capitalists if we are to survive we must bend the rules of engagement. Here in the Motherland, our ability to produce war goods has been hampered beyond belief”.

“While Gotham’s infrastructure is pumping out a vast quantity of goods” Terra the geomancer supplies, pulling up a few photographs of Gotham’s war machine that had been allowed to be broadcast as a propaganda piece.

“Can we trust it?” Anatoli asks.

“Do we have any other options?”

He turns to Raina who had spoken again and sighs, knowing that they had indeed run out of options. “The Justice League has ordered a two day ceasefire in which all our forces are to demobilize and surrender their weapons. That gives us a very tight window to escape”.

“How?” Vertigo asks. “We are hundreds of thousands of miles away from Gotham. It might as well be on Mars for us”.

“I have a friend who can get us there” Raina admits. “And how do you know this friend?”   
  


“He is...how would you say? An old...colleague...no, perhaps…”.

“It is comrade Raina’s former lover. An Atlantean by the name of Garth” Terra supplies smiling over her shoulder as she gets the sorceress to blush. “And how would he get us all out of here? And why? Is not Atlantis allied with Superman?”

“Parts of Atlantis” Raina corrects. “Many of their outlying cities are resisting. Aquaman wishes to keep this a secret. We can bring this information to the capitalists for them to exploit as well. As for why Garth wishes to help…”.

“You have been in contact with him already?” Anatoli asks.

“Da. Through my emphatic abilities”.

“Hmm”.

“As for why he would wish to help us?” she begins again. “He wants to see a football team in Gotham play”.

“What is this...football?” asks Vertigo, the Markovian having been relatively sheltered alongside his niece. “It’s a game they play. A sport” the colonel supplies. “Bah, his motivations are not for revolution? Then he is no friend to us”.

  
Raina turns on Vertigo but manages to keep calm. “His motivations are his motivations. What we need is a way out...a way he supplies. You would do best to heed me…”.

“You do not order me girl!” Vertigo begins, making to advance on the younger woman before Anatoli stops him, trying to regain control of the situation. “Enough. Raina, where would he wish us to meet him? Can he transport all of us?”

“Da” she nods to the affirmative. “And he can meet us one hour north of her at the bay of Kuropatkin’s Last Stand”.

“Hmm...our retreat to fight another war beginning where the white army was defeated once and for all? Not a good omen or perhaps it is very good. We shall only look back upon this day and know then”.

“Does that mean we are going to set out comrade colonel?” Terra asks, the nervousness tinging her voice. “Da. We set out in one hour. Warm yourself and pack whatever else we may need. We must join the fight and come to the defense of the Americans, as they once did for us”.

**_Wayne Manor_ **

They’d come to try and speak with him. Convince him of the sound reasons behind their decision. Or they’d just tried to get him to talk. Uncle Vic, Uncle Harvey, Aunt Dinah and even Alfred had all come up, trying to reach the boy.

He wasn’t mad at them.

Any of them really. He understood why they felt what they did and in their shoes he knew that he might even agree with them. Maybe...maybe if they’d done that sooner Barbara would still be alive.

‘No...stop. Stop thinking like that’.

He couldn’t shake the feeling of her still being there with him and it didn’t help at all that so much of her stuff had found its way to his room over the course of their short romantic relationship.

_ “I love you Jason”. _

He knew that their love had been true. It was short, at least for their open romantic relationship, but it had been simmering long before that. They’d know each other for so long and had done more beside each other than most other couples ever would have.

  
And now?   
  


He couldn’t even keep their shared identity going.

That was the hardest part.

In a way? He felt like he’d lost Barbara all over again, and he needed to come to terms with that. A world without her? It...it made him feel like all purpose was gone and being Robin was one of the few things that actually made him feel like he could go forward.

But that was gone now. 

He had to live a “normal” life.

“What the hell does that even mean?” he asks himself, crying over the loss once more. 

Behind him, leaning against his dresser, was the sword. He had kept it, and in the rush that had happened following the attack of Blackfire and the subsequent cordoning off of the city? Nobody had stopped to question it.

But now it glowed faintly in the dark. Jason didn’t notice, to absorbed in how his world had just been destroyed all around him, but it was there.

And soon? He’d have an answer to what his purpose was.

**_Themyscira_ **

Her mouth was bloodied, her hair in disarray and matted in gore. She didn’t care. None of that mattered. All that mattered was the succulent tast of flesh.

She returns to gnawing upon Lydia’s now well cooked arm, tearing bits of flesh away and moaning in ecstasy as she sucked swallowed it. She hadn’t been able to stop, and the pile of burnt bones was testament to how much she had eaten already.

She was different. Almost physically changed.

Her eyes had taken on a translucent glow and her teeth had sharpened to fine points. “Ohh poor Lydia” she says to herself, resting on her haunches like a wild animal in front of the fire. “I can feel your spirit. So lovesick for me. Well, just know that you’ve served me in some manner”.

She throws the now barren radius away, having even cracked the bone to suckle out the marrow. “Ohh my love. If only I’d know. I wouldn’t have even hesitated! This...this is...ecstasy”.

When it had come time to consume the corpse, she didn’t know if she could go through with it. Looking down on Lydia’s charred body, she almost vomited. But eventually...the smell became so tempting. She couldn’t resist.    
  
All regrets she had now were gone, and the only thing she wished for was for her lover to be there beside her to enjoy a meal.

A stick breaks behind her, and she hears someone approach. 

“Ohh Diana! It’s you. I was wondering who had set a fire this far out” Amphitre says, setting down her shield and spear by a rock. Diana turns her head and growls, hating that her meal had been interrupted in such a way. “Wow..what do you have there?” her fellow Amazon asks curiously.

She takes a deep breath and inhales the scent as well. “Whatever it is it smells delicious. Someone told me Lydia came out here with you. Where is…”. The woman stops her sentence as she looks over at the pile of bones, trying to decipher what she was seeing.

A skull looks back at her, picked clean of all flesh and just waiting to be bleached in the warm sun. “By Hera” she says, rushing to grab her spear. Diana was faster though, and she turns to launch her nude body at the woman, grappling her to the ground.

She knew that Lydia’s strength had been added to her own, and that advantage was more than enough. “Ohh Amphitre, curious, curious Amphitre” Diana teases, picking up the woman by the throat and slamming her back into a tree.

“What...what have you done?” she asks while struggling to escape the princess’ reach. “Just what I’m meant to. Eat. In fact...you liked the smell did you not?”

Amphitre was beyond horrified and it showed in her eyes. “Don’t lie...you did. I can sense it now. Taste it” Diana says, leaning in to run her tongue along the warrior woman’s cheek. “Hmm...I wonder how you would taste. Then again, its best not to spoil my appetite. After all, the main dish will be served soon. Queens most likely taste better than simple warriors don’t they?”

She doesn’t realize that one of Amphitre’s hands had dropped to her side where she pulled a dagger from her stola. With hard as steel eyes the woman thrusts it up into Diana’s side. “This ends...today Androphagi!”

For a moment all is still, and Amphitre expects the woman to drop her at any moment. Her hold is maintained and a sickening smile curves the demigod’s lips. With one hand she continues to hold her captive, but the other drops to her wrist where she snatches the knife away, retracting it out of her own flesh. 

For show, she brings it to her own lips and licks some of the blood from it, using her tongue in a mockery of sensuality. “Hmm...delicious. Nothing quite like a meal you cooked yourself” she says, examining the knife. “Hmm…”.

  
She takes it back to her side and gently slices a small strip of her own flesh from the wound, watching as it heals instantly following that. “What...what has happened to you Diana?”

“Something greater than Elysium” the dark haired woman whispers, dropping the knife and bringing up the strip of her own flesh towards Amphitre’s lips. “No! No!”

“Aww it’s very rude to deny hospitality” she teases, increasing her pressure on the woman’s throat to such a degree that she has no choice but to open her mouth. When she does, Diana thrusts her flesh within and covers her mouth, trying to force her to chew.    
  
Amphitre struggles even more, kicking out her legs to try and escape. It was useless though. Diana’s hold could not be broken.

“No...taste...give in like I know you desperately wish to”.

Amphitre tried, she truly did. But somehow...she did taste it.

And slowly the change comes over her eyes. Her face twists in pleasure as her teeth rise and fall on Diana’s flesh. “Good”.

Diana steps back, dropping her to the ground where the impact causes her to regain some of her senses. “What...what…”.

She wanted to spit the flesh out, but she had already swallowed it. “What did you do to me?” she asks fearfully, looking towards some of Lydia’s remains with an undisguised and lustful hunger. “I’ve shown you the truth sister”.

Diana had moved back onto her haunches, moving much more like an animal than a human. She was eager to return to her meal, but now? She had company. 

“Don’t you wish to join me? Lydia’s buttocks is still there, as are parts of her leg and shoulder. The most tender and juiciest morsels”.

  
Amphitre gives in, and rushes towards the fire where she just leans down and finds a piece of meat, uncaring as to what it was. All she wanted was the taste. That delectable taste. Diana is there too, gnawing like a ravenous wolf upon the carcass of a sheep.

Soon, she would bring in more. Eventually her entire kingdom would know the taste of flesh. ‘I am going to be like Saturn’ she thinks with a wry laugh. ‘Though reversed. Hippolyta will not consume her daughter. The daughter will consume Hippolyta!’

The fall of Themyscira had begun.


	20. Chapter 20

**_The Russian Arctic_ **

“Comrade Raina”.

“Yes comrade colonel?” the grey skinned woman asks, peaking out from between the upturned collars of her winter coat. Anatoli just gestures for her to follow him a little ways away from the camp they’d set up. It was clear he wanted to have a discussion.

The sorceress sighed to herself, but nevertheless followed after her leader, and begins her trek through the snow.

It broke comfortably beneath her, having only freshly fallen. Their trek had been...easier than expected. They had been able to use the few available Hind attack helicopters to get them here. The choppers were now parked comfortably in a clearing. From what they’d picked up on radio chatter, the forces of the Justice League were not raising their eyebrows at a bit of air traffic. Instead they were merely focused on ensuring that no attacks were made.

As long as they kept it peaceful, the truce would be honored.

“You wish to speak with me colonel?”

“Da. Back at the bunker…”.

“I know” she interrupts. “I was out of line. I seized command when it was not my place. I understand that this is a treasonous offence, and you’d be well within your rights under Article 3 to…”.

The man just chuckles, enjoying how quickly the stoic and rational woman was to jump upon military regulations, even if they would mean her own death. “I would do no such thing. As a matter of fact, I wish to thank you for your leadership. I also must offer my apologies”.

  
Anatoli Knyazev had never apologized to anyone before this.

“I was...overcome with grief. You see….Leningrad..”.

He trails off, unable to bring him to say what he desperately needed to. Luckily he was speaking to an empath who was also very intelligent when it came to discerning things. “You had family there”.

The man nods, and exhales deeply, reaching into his jacket pocket to retract a faded picture. It was old, but still easily discernible. He hands it over to the younger girl who looks down upon it.

She sees a much younger Anatoli in the center of the frame with a gorgeous blonde woman at his side. Each held a baby in their arms while a young boy stood before them. He was wearing his uniform and it was clear that it was taken before the first fall of the Soviet Union.

“That is my wife Svetlana, my daughter’s are the babies in each of arms. Ludmilla and Katsya. That’s my boy, front and center. Anatoli jr”.

She manages a small smile, something that was usually very uncharacteristic for the girl. “You have a beautiful family”.

She hands the photo back to the man takes it and brings it to his lips before replacing it in his jacket pocket. “Had Raina. I had a beautiful family” he says, his fists clenching. “When Superman and his goons invaded the Motherland, they paid special attention to ensuring that Leningrad, a symbol of defiance of the last war, was razed to the ground. They accomplished this...nothing is there now. Not even the bones of my family”.

She reaches out and places a hand on his arm in an attempt to comfort the man. He thanks her with the glance he spares her, and she retracts her hand again.

“I was not a good father. Nor a good husband. My service to the motherland always came first and...I was not there for much of their lives. Anatoli always tried to be like me. Followed me into the army. He was a good boy”.

He takes a moment to look down at the snow, smiling to himself. “I keep that old picture because it reminds me that I had a chance to do the right thing. Be a family man and dedicate my life to something greater than myself. Something that was more than the motherland. I lived my life in my father’s shadow, a hero of the Great Patriotic War, and my son lived in my own. It got him killed”.

Raina was quiet, reflecting over the man’s words. She hadn’t known much about the famed “Beast” of the KGB, the man who’d served in Afghanistan and in numerous other engagements around the world. Not until they were thrown together by a twist of fate.

Divisions were smashed and thrown back together, sometimes without any means to accomplish the objectives laid out before them by an increasingly distant capitol who had less of a grasp on the calamity before them than if they’d been on Mars.

That’s how she’d found her place amongst Colonel Knayzev’s ad hoc command. 

“I was born in Siberia”.

Her sudden words take the man’s attention away from his sorrow and refocus it back on her. “It was...cold and lonely most of the time. As it probably had been for my mother. She was a rebellious woman who ran from her family with a group of other asocials. She was...nice though”.

“And your father?”

“Ahh…” Raina says. “That is where the story gets tricky. You see, many in Siberia were superstitious. The old faith of the Orthodox church was still strong here, but so were other much older beliefs. Beliefs brought here from lands long forgotten. My mother fell in with a group of these fanatics who managed to somehow summon something from beyond”.

Anatoli found himself enraptured by the woman’s tale. 

“That night, during the ritual, I was conceived in violence by a being known as Trigon, an interdimensional warlord who seizes planets and seeks to corrupt the world. I was meant to be his vessel, the key if you will”.

“Hmm...it is in my experience that powerful men...or rather beings do not let that which is vital to them escape easily”.

“How astute. Yes. There were two factions later that sought to control my mother and me. Trigon and his hellish armies for one of course and a strange group of mystics from another plane called Azerath”.

Anatoli tried to follow along, and for the most part he succeeded but he was a man impaired by a harsh military adherence to reality. He had never fought a war with ghosts or demons, only men and men? You could kill.

This other world, the one that Raina inhabited? It was outside of the realm of his full understanding.

“Both sought to use me for their own ends. One or the other would’ve succeeded as the cultists my mother once called family were after her. She ran to her uncle, a high ranking general in the Soviet Command structure before the fall. He was able to protect us with his connections to an organization within the military apparatus. Department Eight”.

  
Anatoli’s eyebrows raised and Raina smiles softly. “Ahh so you’ve heard of them?”

“Only rumors” the man admits. “More akin to ghost stories than actual truth”.

His subordinate nods to herself and turns her gaze back to the sheet of unbroken ice that covers the sea at this point. “You would be surprised at how many of those stories are true”.

“In a world where an alien from another planet has seized control of all our nations? Nothing surprises me anymore”.

“Good” she applauds. “Keep that open mind. Much is going to happen that may be confusing to the men and they need you to keep them steady”.

“This...department eight?” he asks, and Raina waits for him to continue. “Is that where you learned such a fierce loyalty to the motherland and to communism?”

“I grew up reading the works of Lenin and Marx” she explains. “It was a way for me to order myself and concentrate. My powers are linked to my emotions. If they get out of control...so do my powers. The monks of Azerath wanted to strip me of my emotions fully, something my mother refused to allow. Department eight taught me how to control them and harness them through an iron will that can only be forged in communism” she explains.

“A class consciousness and an awareness of the eternal worker’s revolution has kept me going. Given me purpose. Even when I became the last one to stand against the Justice League from the department”.

“So your mother…”.

“Is long dead” she cuts him off. “Cancer, many years ago. I’m sorry it is still a very raw subject for me”.

Anatoli nods and looks back out over the sea. “When is this friend of yours going to get here?”

“I feel him now actually” she says, confusing the man. “What do you…”.

The cracking of the ice, which could only be accomplished by an immense force, interrupts his words, and slowly they see the white sheet slowly push itself upwards and ice shards fly everywhere.

“What is that?”

“An Atlantean sub...Garth has a flair for the dramatic”.

The sleek looking vessel slowly emerges, waiting in the pool it had formed by the mere act of surfacing. “Something tells me that you are not exactly thrilled at having to call upon the man?”

“I am not” she admits. “There is a reason we are former lovers. It never went beyond the physical and...at the time I was hurt as it was my first relationship and serving the motherland at all times makes one yearn for a comforting touch. Garth was able to use that with me”.

“Hmm”.

Anatoli decided that he already did not like the man and opts to spend a few more moments speaking with the girl. “How did you meet him?”

“While I was stationed at the radar array upon the Black Sea. He was...kind to me and I felt happy with him but over time…I found him to be charming and I fell for his ruse”.

Anatoli felt sorry for the girl. ‘Many such cases of young women being led astray by a handsome youth’.

“Then why did you call upon him?” he asks curiously.

“Because my duty to my men and the Motherland is greater than any feelings of hurt I may be holding onto from our failed relationship”.

“You are a strong woman Raina. Very strong. I commend you”.

She nods and makes to move away from the man, apparently wanting to inform the troops that the sub was here and that they should get ready to move. “Raina” he calls out, stopping the woman a few feet away from him in the snow. “If you wish it...I can dispatch the man once we board the sub. I am skilled in such methods as to make it quick and painless”.

A small smile comes across the grey skinned girl’s face and she shakes her head. “You are a funny man Colonel. But you are also a good one. Thank you”.

With that the girl moves away, her trench coat visible through the line of trees they had set their camp upon. Anatoli takes a moment to look back at the sub. “I wasn’t joking” he says to himself, turning and following the path that had been tread by the two officers on their way here.

**_Themyscira_ **

Night had fallen and with it darkness. This darkness was infinitely useful to the women who were making their way through the dark. When they reach the foot of the stairs leading up to the queen’s quarters the leader stops and turns, grasping the other by the shoulder.

“Amphitre, this meal is mine alone to indulge in”.

The woman practically hisses in despair, having been eager herself to partake in the flesh of the Amazonian queen. “Pleaseeeee Diana! I feel as if I’m starving. I need to eat more. Let me just have some of her shoulder…”.

“No!” Diana silences her, drawing a knife across the woman’s throat. “As your new queen I command you to follow my orders”.

Amphitre was still overtaken by her mad desire for flesh, and even now it seemed as if her skin had grown sallow and pale, losing the natural tan that all Amazons seemed to have due to the perpetual sunlight. “But….there is another meal you can partake of if you so need”.

Amphitre nodded eagerly, clasping her hands together.

“Phillipus is asleep in her quarters. Go there, butcher her and feed some of her body to others within. We need as many of our sisters within our ranks as possible if we are to succeed in our war. We need the other’s power! Those who were to weak to join us”.

“Yes...yes it will be done Diana”.

“My queen”.

“Pardon?”

Diana looked at the women with fire in her eyes. “I am no longer Diana to you. I am to referred to as my queen. Do you understand?”

Amphitre was beyond caring for such trivialities at this point. She didn’t even care for the lives of her sisters whom she’d help kill, change or consume. But she would humor Diana. “Yes, yes my queen. Whatever you wish”.

“Good. Now go. This is my task alone”.

Without a word the trained Amazonian moves into the darkness, her cannibalistic intent clear if you looked into her bloodshot and almost translucent eyes. Diana herself continues up towards the Queen’s bed chamber. She knew it would be guarded by two Amazons, and that was why she brought her bow. 

As she reaches the top floor, she turns the corner to see them at their stations. ‘Hmm only one need die. The other? She can be kept busy feasting on her comrade’s corpse’.

She draws back the bowstring while notching an arrow, counting on her newfound speed to carry her the rest of the way. She releases the arrow and drops the bow, launching herself into the air almost as quickly as the arrow. It felt as if she was following it, and the rise and fall of her footsteps was enough to silence the sound of her sandals against the marble.

She was halfway to the door when her arrow buries itself in the guard’s neck, sending her gurgling to the floor as blood spills the wound.

“Phoibe…”.

The other guard had only just noticed and was trying to make sense of what had happened in the ambient light of the torches. Her reflexes, like Amphitre’s before her, were too slow to counter the now cannibalistic demigod. Diana launches herself into the air, bringing her body down upon the remaining guard and placing her hand over her mouth.

“Hello Alkyone. I’m surprised it’s you tonight. I thought for sure it would be Myrto”.

Without much thought or effort Diana reaches out and grabs the wounded Amazon by her foot, dragging her closer where she was able to expertly use her knife to slice off a piece of the woman’s thigh. The downed Amazon tried to moan in pain, but her wound prevented her, so all that escaped was a wet gurgle.

Alkyone struggled, but Diana’s strength was too much to overcome. Even if she seemed like she was losing weight, her strength only appeared to increase. The emaciated woman was truly a horror to behold, naked and bloody, her hair askew.

“Now...enjoy your meal. I have family business to take care of”.

She slides the meat into her opposite hand and forces it into the other woman’s mouth. Alkyone tried to scream in the moment she had that was free of the blockage of Diana’s hand, but that inhale of breath only caused the flesh of her friend to fall into the back of her throat. As a quick reaction to choking, she swallows and in horror she feels it slide down her throat into her stomach.

  
Diana moves off of her as Alkyone silently rises to her knees, palms down on the marble. “Now” Diana adds, looking towards the dying Phoibe. “I have work to do. Enjoy your meal on behalf of your new queen Alkyone”.

She steps over the two, watching momentarily with a grin as the woman feral advances on her friend who tried to crawl away. Her strength had failed her, as it had failed all of the Amazons in Diana’s mind. She doesn’t feel a shred of pity as Alkyone latches onto the already open wound in the woman’s throat, suckling the blood and eating of her flesh like a rabid wolf.

The princess enters her mother’s chambers and smiles at the complete lack of preparation. There was the woman who’d birthed her, raised her and led the Amazons for eons, asleep, unprepared in her bed.

‘Ohh mother, what a fool you were’.

She circles for moment, watching the woman sleep and enjoying her ultimate triumph. Roughly she reaches down and yanks the woman’s hair back, exposing her throat. It woke Hippolyta, but only in time for her to witness the flash of steel followed by a crimson shower as her blood was spilt. 

“Hello mother” Diana teases, cruelly licking her lips at the sight of the blood which ran through her own veins. She pulls the knife away and licks it before plunging it into the woman’s stomach, causing the queen to lurch in her bed. 

Before she dies, Diana leans in and looks into her eyes, filled with fear and confusion, apparently unable to process the true scope of betrayal before her. “I’ve always hated you” Diana whispers before planting a bloody kiss on the woman’s cheek.

With a struggled grunt the woman dies, and Diana eagerly sets about her feast. Outside the door Phoibe had already had multiple pieces of her flesh ripped from her body as Alkyone was in a shark like feeding frenzy. Phoibe was long dead, and now? So was the queen.

As Diana latches her teeth onto the woman’s cheek, tearing it with them all she can think of Tantalus. She would search her mother’s room to find the key to Tartarus. As soon as he was free they would begin their true conquest. But first? She had to finish her meal.

‘You always did teach me to clean my plate before leaving the table mother’.

**_Gotham City, Headquarters of the Justice Society of America_ **

“Alright, you got us all here...what now bats?”   
  


Bruce didn’t like the tone that the exorcist was taking with him, and with everything that had happened recently? He really wasn’t in the mood for games. He makes to move forward, an urge to punch the chainsmoker’s face in before Harley reaches out to stop him.

One look at her eyes and he backs down.

There were more important things going on.

Vixen steps forward and clucks disapprovingly at the man before shuffling him behind her. “Hey love, easy with the rough treatment”. Vixen ignores him and continues on. “What he’s trying to say is, well, first and foremost thank you for hosting us in Gotham…”.

“You can thank Luthor for that”.

The bald man in question doesn’t move from his chair down as he knows why Bruce is acting the way he was. Still, he was hoping that the man could pull it together, if even just a little, to get through this meeting.

Bruce seemed to be on the cusp of rage but slowly he brings himself down. ‘It wont bring her back’. He tries to remind himself of what this was all for. What this entire struggle had turned into for him, and it somehow works.

“You’re right. I apologize. You all want to know why I’ve asked you to be assembled her”.

The collective group nods, each having taken a seat at the long table that had been provided for the purpose. One member of the group couldn’t reign in his excitement. Beast Boy stands up excitedly, his girlfriend sitting beside him already embarrassed. “Gar don’t!” the silver skinned beauty known as Bombshell, a.k.a Amy Allen pleads before seeing it as a lost cause and slapping her hand against her face.

“Umm..Mr. Batman? Mrs. Batwoman? Just wanted to say it is way cool to be working with you guys” the green skinned young man admits. “We really weren’t sure were to go from where we were. You know, Superman and stuff but uhh...well…”.

All eyes were now on Garfield Logan, though he didn’t sense it. 

“I just want to say it’s nice to have hope again you know? We kind of got our butts kicked out there. Alot”.

“Garrr” Amy protests.

“It’s true babe. It’s true. We were always one second away from getting our teeth kicked in and lucky just kind of saved our butts every time but that wasn’t going to last forever. But, being here with all of you? It gives me the feeling that maybe, just maybe, we aren’t all gonna lose at the end of the day. That the bad guys aren’t going to win” he goes on, the other’s getting into his speech.

Even Batman is rendered silent, wanting to hear where the odd youth with the power to change into animals would take this. ‘Jason would like him’.

That thought hurts him for the moment as he remembers that he had stripped Jason the right to be Robin. ‘You deserve to be here Jason’ he admits mentally. ‘But I can’t lose my son’.

“So uhh yeah, long story short. Thank you for allowing us into the big boy’s club and giving us a chance to really do what’s right. I’m happy. You know...I think we’re all going to make pretty good friends and we’re going to stomp Supes like a bug so yeah that’s all I needed to say”.

He sits down, finally a little embarrassed by the looks he was receiving from the team. 

“You’re a doofus you know that?” Amy asks in his ear, causing the green boy to blush. She kisses him, wanting to wipe away any insult. “But that was beyond cute and very alpha of you to just talk to Batman”.

She gently rubs her hand up and down his chest, causing his blush to further spread. “Well I..ummm”.

“Thank you Beast Boy” Batman says, shocking the room. “Your words were...welcomed”.

“Yeah he’s the spirit of our team” Vixen teases of jocularily. “A real sweetheart”.

“Ja he is very sweet. He saved me from Gorilla Grodd in Norway”.

“On Thanagar he’d be considered a bit of a pest” Hawkman says, leaning forward on the table in a serious manner. Everyone was shocked by the smile that then spreads on his face. “But also pretty brave, for a scrawny green guy”.

Harleen smiles to herself as well, enjoying the easy camaraderie that the team already had. It would make things easier.

“Well, we really need to get back on track” Question says, Canary having opted to stay back at the manor with the children. “Yeah, faceless is right. I don’t wanna sound with a wanker but it’s kind of vital that we focus on the army gathering at the walls mate”.

Batman agrees with the man, and so does Lex who stands up to move beside the Caped Crusader. He was secretly thankful, though he knew that Bruce would rather him not say anything. ‘He lightened the mood a bit by thanking Beast Boy’ he muses.

The screen comes to life and the first slide showcases a picture of what appeared to be artillery guns. No, they didn’t appear to be, they were artillery guns.

“Ohh no…” Amy says.

“I think someone already knows what the issue is” Lex says. “Here we see that the Justice League and their military allies have done the smart thing and set up three artillery batteries outside of Gotham. Each are located outside of the range of our own artillery”.

“Isn’t your stuff like the highest tech possible?” Vixen asks. “Why can’t you hit theirs?”

“Because our artillery uses shells that are coated in synthetic kryptonite. It is a very heavy substance” he exclaims. “While it may keep Superman away, it can’t go the distance so to speak”.

  
“So we can only effectively defend the city if they come close. Something they haven’t done since the first day” Hawkman says. “Exactly”. The first day that the siege had been mounted, Superman’s army threw itself against the walls.    
  


It wasn’t even a contest.

The soldiers fell in droves, the anti aircraft system being more than adept at keeping their support well away. The soldiers themselves had been cut to pieces by the small arms fire of Luthor’s men. Effective armor and shifting plates in the wall that concealed the positions of the set bunkers were augmented by the railcar mounted heavy guns that lined the entire length of the wall.

They weren’t ready for something quite like this.

“They won’t risk it again. But they will bombard us”.

“Destroying this battery isn’t going to stop them from doing that” Deadshot, a.k.a Floyd Lawton interjects. He was seated between Killer Frost and Cheetah, each of whom took turns glaring at one another. “They’re just going to get more of it”.

“I know” Lex says. “This attack isn’t the be all end all. All it is is to give us time to move more of our citizenry and operations underground” he explains. Another schematic is pulled up, though this time it is of the ground beneath Gotham. “Gotham is unique in one aspect. It’s rock effectively keeps the water table very low down”.

“How low are we talking?”

“One and a half miles down” Bruce intejects, taking over for the moment. “Our plan is to buy us enough time to move the population into underground bunkers while also clearing the way above ground by destroying a few buildings in the downtown district” he explains. “This will give us the opportunity to build a second wall that, while weaker than the outlying defense, will still give us a fallback position in the event that the first one falls”.

Constantine slowly idled his cigarette between his fingers, reflecting on the situation himself. Batman sees this and senses an opportunity to mend the bridge so to speak.

“Constantine. Is the magical barrier you set up going to hold?”

“As long as I’m alive, yeah” he states. “Well, as long as anyone is alive in the city. It’s a soul snare, powered by the ambient energy of those living within the area. Some call it geist energy in case any of you blokes was wondering”.

Nobody was but it was an adequate explanation.

“And what are we going to do about the guns now?” Hawkman asks, Ice sitting beside him with a worried expression. “We’re going to attack them”.

Luthor’s statement sends a flurry of murmuring through the room and protests were already being voiced. “We can’t leave the walls!”

“It’s suicide!”

“Who the hell’s going to volunteer for that?”

“I’ll do it”.

All voices are instantly silenced by the Thanagarian’s proclamation though it wasn’t the only one. “Jeg ogsa!” Ice says, blushing as the Thanagarian turns towards her with a light appreciative smile.

“I guess I’ll go too” Constantine says.

“The batmobile will provide me a quick way to get to the guns” Bruce says, drawing a look from Harley. “You’re all forgetting about Superman” she exclaims. “As soon as he figures out what’s going on he’s going to be all over you guys”.

  
“I have a plan for that”.

  
Lex turns the slide to something that looked like a satellite dish, though it was also hooked up to the end of a cannon. “This is a particle transmitter. It will allow me to saturate the air with little crystalized beads of kryptonite” he explains. “This should put Superman out of commission, at least for a little while, but it’s not enough to kill him”.

“That’s still not going to be enough” Harleen says. “There’s more than just Supes to worry about. Remember, they have an army out there”.

“That’s why we need a distraction. You see, following President Dent’s proclamation calling for more metahumans to come to Gotham, I received numerous transmissions, one of which even came from what appears to an Atlantean sub carrying the remnants of Russia’s metahuman division. A few others will be straggling in towards a rally point at at the Gotham docks, which as you know…”.

“Have already been attacked by Superman’s air force” Vixen says. “Half the ships are sunk and the rest too damaged to be of any use. He has that area under constant surveillance by the way”.

“Because it’s right outside of the exclusion zone” Batman says, looking at the map of Gotham laid out on the wall and mulling it over. “He won’t be expecting anything there. Not with the damage it’s suffered”.

“It’s feasible” John says. “If anything it’ll be Zee he sends there. I can handle her”.

Mari stops and turns to the englishman, noticing the look in his eyes right before he makes to turn away. She places a hand on his cheek and turns his face back, smiling gently. “Hey. Think you’ll need some help at the docks?”

“Wouldn’t mind it love”.

“Count on me to be there with you then”.

“It’s settled then...We’ll need numbers at the docks to ensure as many of the metas who are defecting to us get through. But...there still leaves one issue on the table”.

None of them knew what the bald man was driving at, but whatever it was they knew that it was important.

“In order to get Superman close enough to the wall to use the transmitter, and to keep him away from the docks, we need to draw him in. Someone who can trade a few blows with him and survive is going to have to do it”.

Nobody fit that description in this room...well, almost nobody. 

Slowly everyone turns their eyes to bombshell, the teenager who had access to atomic energy. “Dude...no freakin’ way!” Beast Boy says, standing up to prevent them from picking his girlfriend. “There has to be another way. We’re not sending Amy out there…”.

“Gar stop!”

She stands up and moves to his side, turning him to look at her. “You don’t make this decision. I do” she says. Slowly Amy turns to look at Lex. “What do you want me to do?”

“Amy…”.

“Gar we didn’t come here to hide” she says. “We came here to fight. To make the world a better place. To kick Superman’s butt remember?” she teases with a smile. “Trust me. I can do this”.

The green youth looks down at his feet, not knowing what to say that might change her mind. He didn’t think he could change her mind. “Beast Boy, I promise I’ll be as quick with the transmitter as possible. All we need Amy to do is issue him a challenge. Hell most likely? He’ll just do the normal dictator thing and try and talk her into joining him or something” Lex soothes, trying to assure the boy that the girl wouldn’t be in danger.

That was a lie and everyone knew it, but sometimes a comforting lie was better than the uncomfortable truth.

  
Garfield looked unconvinced but Amy reaches out and rubs his shoulders. “Hey, at least I can count on you to watch whatever video there is and gush about how I kicked Superman’s ass right? When I get back maybe we’ll make a date night of it. You know...you telling me how awesome I am”.

Garfield rolls his eyes but he does smile. “Pfft, alright egomaniac. I’m sure we’ll be celebrating how you beat that loser into pulp soon then”.

“Hey! I’m not an egomaniac” she teases, pecking his lips but staying close enough to whisper to him. “I only like it when you hype me up”.

“Well, it’s settled then” Lex says.

“When does this all need to kick off?” Hawkman asks, glad that they had a plan that effectively divided Superman’s forces. Still, it also divided theirs. 

“Tomorrow morning. The soviets will be here by then and apparently their sub has some firepower. The rest I’ve found out are sheltering in an abandoned department store right outside of Gotham. They’re okay for the night but I’m sure that the League is going to find them if they’re out there any longer”.

“Why can’t we get them tonight?”

“Too risky” Batman says, shooting down Deadshot’s implied proposal. “We need to have it all in one shot or the League will be ready for us on the next excursion”. 

“What about anyone that comes along later?”

“I guess it’ll be a case by case basis with that” Lex says, concluding the meeting. “Alright, everyone get some sleep. In the morning we’ll all meet at our positions and come up with a respectable game plan. We’ll need someone to handle overall communications for the assault group”.

“Batwoman can handle that”.

Harleen glares at Bruce, but she doesn’t say anything as the importance of a united front outweighed her voicing her anger with her husband for speaking on her behalf. She knew that he was scared. Scared of failing and more importantly scared of losing anyone else. She wasn’t going to let that fear control him.

‘We need to stick together. Now more than anything’.

“Alright team. Dismissed”.

**_Eth Alth’eban, Pakistan_ **

The harsh wind rolled through the stone walls of the castle keep, chilling all of those who hadn’t adequately prepared for it. Ras Al Ghul was not one of them. He imperiously moved through the halls, his cape swaying out behind him as he advances on his desired destination.

“Has she moved or said anything since appearing here?”

A figure jumps down from above him, moving stealthily and catlike through the darkness before moving up from her fours to walk upright. “No master” the mask clad woman says. “She hasn’t said a word. The cold doesn’t seem to bother her. She responds to nothing, taunts nor words of comfort”.

“Hmmm”.

The man didn’t quite know what to make of it. She had appeared there in his throne room, naked and raving mad, frothing at the mouth. Before he knew it she had gouged the eyes out of one of his guards who’d tried to restrain her. 

It took all the might of Bronze Tiger and Lady Shiva to finally bring her down with an expert nerve pinch that sent the redheaded girl to the ground. They didn’t know who she was, and so far she hadn’t given them a name nor a reason for her sudden appearance. 

Ras stops at a wooden door. “Chesire, open it”.

“Yes master”.

The girl rushes forward to unlatch the barring mechanism across the wooden door, allowing him entry. He walks right in and up to the kneeling shape before him. He can’t help but scowl, pushing his foot forward onto the girl’s back, attempting to see what she would do.

The redhead does nothing, and just continues to sit there in her torn and tattered robes. He comes to a decision, one that was all too easy to make.

“She is a useless mouth” he says. “Kill her”.

He turns and makes to move out of the room, leaving the girl who was his current protege to handle it. Of her many failings her major one was that she was a sadist, and Chesire smiles widely in a mockery of her namesake as she draws a blade.

“With pleasure master”.

  
She enters the dark confines of the room, and Ras expects to hear no more of the issue. He is about halfway down the hall when the sound of a scuffle breaks his ears. ‘That was unexpected’. He turns to look, watching just in time as Chesire’s limp body is thrown from the dark entrance.

It lands with a sickening thud against the opposite wall before sliding to the floor.

Now Ras was definitely interested.

He moves up to the girl, knowing already that she was dead. He turns her over and is intrigued by the level of violence inflicted in such a short time. Chesire’s face was now etched in a look of horror, and a small trickle of blood is coming from the corner of her lips.

The knife she had wielded was slammed into her neck, slicing the skin with a precision he had only seen of his very best.

“A clean kill”.

He turns to look into the room where he notices the girl has resumed her position, kneeling on the floor in the middle of the cell. “Do you speak girl? Or do you prefer to remain silent?” he calls out in English, having deduced at least that she did not speak Urdu”.

She gives no response.

“You are not a trained killer” he continues. “Undoubtedly skilled. Trained in something but most certainly not to kill. I can tell from the violence you inflicted. A street brawler of some sort perhaps?”

Still she says nothing. Ras is not offended by this, nor did he need her to speak. With his old and defective protege dead, he now could look towards a new one. One that he already seemed to have found.

“You are cold. I can sense it. You resist it though. Is it out of pride or is it self punishment? Abstaining from creature comforts is not unheard of in our world”. He steps forward and removes his cape, wrapping it about the girl’s shoulders. She instantly claps her hands to it, preventing it from falling away as she relishes the warmth.

“Come now. Let’s get you fed and properly clothed” he offers, pulling her up. He expected a violent reaction, but is pleasantly surprised when he receives none.

It was much too early for her to challenge him, and if she did he would have no choice but to kill her. ‘And that would be such a waste of potential’.

  
He leads the girl with an arm wrapped about her shoulder, moving her out of the cell and advancing back down the hall from where he came. “You do not have a name, at least not one you have seen fit to give to us, so I shall have to come up with something for you myself”.

The girl stares blankly ahead and passes the body of Chesire without a passing glance. She showed no remorse for what she did, and that was something that was eagerly noted by the centuries old assassin. 

“You are not a trained killer, but an instinctual one. I can see it. Every sinew of your body primed for one single purpose. You dispatch without mercy, but also without cruelty. There is only one name that can befit one such as you, one title that you will be given before you have fully earned it” he says, speaking to what appeared to be unhearing ears.

Barbara just followed, her feet moving on their own. Her body had responded to his call for food and clothing, natural desires of hers, but her mind did not know what those words meant. Nor did she care.

  
All she kept thinking about was a face. A boy she could vaguely remember, but also a boy she could tell you everything about.    
  
“I shall call you Huntress and perhaps you may be my successor. But it is far too early to tell my dear. Far, far too early” he teases. “After all, you have to get through the rest of the League first”.


	21. Chapter 21

**_Kane Memorial Catholic School_ **

He didn’t pay attention to what professor Blood was saying. It didn’t matter much to him anymore. Nothing did. School itself was just something he did to take up time and get his mind off of what he’d lost.

The professor he noticed though, looked haggard and tired, agitated even. He’d already snapped once or twice at one of the girl’s for chewing gum, something he didn’t care about usually.

The bell rings, freeing the students from the temporary tyranny of their beloved teacher, and all of them quickly shuffle out of the room. Jason feels a hand on his shoulder and when he turns to see who had approached him from behind he almost wishes he hadn’t.

“Hi Jason”.

“Ohh...Jenny. Hello”.

The girl smiles lightly and keeps her hand on his shoulder, making it clear that she had something she wanted to say. “Jason, I haven’t really been able to get in touch with you. I called but...I figured that you didn’t want to talk to anyone but I just want you to know that if you need anything from me, I’ll be there. After all, what are friends for?”

He didn’t know what to say and as usual for him when he didn’t know what to say he keeps mumb, nodding along and quietly uttering a thank you. Jenny gets the hint and sadly moves off, part of her still hoping that he would reach out to her as someone he could lean on.

She exits quickly, moving past the now looming priest who looks over towards Jason, fearful that she would be caught in his ire if she stopped now. 

Jason gets up, packing the few items he had taken out of his backpack for the lesson back into it. “Jason…”.

“Yes Father Blood?”

“I just...I wanted to say that I am terribly sorry for your loss. For the entire Wayne family” he goes on. “I have lived a longer life than I look, so believe me when I say that I understand the pain you’re feeling”.

Jason didn’t believe him. He didn’t think it was possible for anyone to understand the pain he was feeling, but the last thing he wanted to do was argue with anyone over something like that. “Thank you Father. I better go”.

“The sword speaks to you doesn’t it?”

That stopped Jason right in his tracks. “How...how do you know about the sword?”

He grips the straps of his backpack worriedly, readying himself for a fight. Something about the way the question had been asked just set him off. The priest sighs to himself and continues on, knowing that he now had no choice but to reveal his whole hand.

  
“I know of many things Jason Wayne” he goes on. “I know that you were one of Gotham’s protectors, the creatures of the night who flew into the unknown, protecting us from evils that could be scarcely comprehended other than by those who came face to face with it”.

“I have to go”.

‘He knows. I don’t know how he knows but he knows. I have to tell Bruce!’ he thinks rapidly, the urge to run welling up within him. “Wait!”

Jason reaches out his hand and slams the door shut in front of the boy, trapping him momentarily. Jason turns and throws his backpack to the ground, bringing up his fists for a fight. “Who the hell are you?”

“A servant of Dumas”.

Jason’s mind flashes back to the apparition that had revealed itself to him twice. The knight upon horseback, it’s sword held aloft and aflame with holy fire. “And if I am not mistaken...so are you”.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about…”.

“Yes you do, and it is vital that we waste no time in pretending that things are not as they are” the man says. “The sword. The sword your father found in Leorblak’s cairn. Do you still have it? Is it safe?”

“How the hell…”.

“Because I placed it there boy!” the man shouts, his voice taking on a gruff demeanor and even seeming to come from deep within him. He shakes his head and breathes deeply, calming himself down. “I’m sorry. I know this is confusing and frightening...but, my boy, you’ve been chosen by God. All that has happened...all of it, is proof of your holy purpose”.

He clasps his hands onto the younger Jason’s shoulders and stares down at him. “You were never meant to simply hide in the dark, attacking from shadows. You and your sword were meant to advance upon the battlefield, resplendent for all to see the power of our lord”.

“I don’t understand!” Jason shouts back, overwhelmed.

“You do. You feel it in your bones and I can see it in your eyes. You know the truth”.

With that the priest moves past the boy and to the door, opening it and stepping out into the hallway. “I can take you to a place where it can be easier explained. Where all the truth may be safely laid out in front of you. But we must go...the grandmaster will explain all to you”.

“Why should I trust you?”

Jason turns with insistent and pleading eyes. “Because boy...because you still love. Your mother, your father and your little sisters. Your aunt and uncle and their brood. Your family and your city. Because you loved...Barbara”. He couldn’t help the little catch in his voice that happened as soon as he said the deceased redhead’s name. 

“Hehe, your delightful lies are built with hate, to consume your soul is their fate”.

The demon speaks out from within him and Jason wants to scream in the rage his mere act of talking causes inside of him. He had wanted to save the girl. Bring her back to her family. But now she was lost to him. He did not know where the demon had sent her, nor would Etrigan let such knowledge loose to him. 

‘I must only pray that Jason never finds out’.

He knew it was a long shot. Dark deeds never stayed buried for long, and the road to hell was paved in good intentions. 

“Jason...please...come with me. I promise that all will be explained”.

There was hesitation and uncertainty plastered all over the boy’s face, but he couldn’t lie and say he wasn’t intrigued. A voice from within him speaks out as well, though it comes from an entirely different place and creature than the one contained within Jason Blood. 

“Go holy warrior. Cloak yourself in the armor and knowledge that only God’s faithful can provide you and when they say you are ready, truly, then you shall be the scourge of the evil that plagues this city, both inside and out”.

Jason knew he would agree. 

It all just clicked into place too easily and now he was on the cusp of realizing his true destiny. The Robin suit he once wore would remain forever encased in glass, hidden away from the world. ‘St. Dumas called me Azrael’ he reminds himself. ‘The angel of death’.

Barbara comes to mind. Her smile, her vibrant red hair and the love he still has for her coils into a knife that pierces his heart.

This would be how he keeps her alive.

“Alright. I’ll come with you”.

**_Justice League Trenchline_ **

It was sad really. How quickly the most advanced and powerful army to walk the Earth had been bogged down. When it was realized that they wouldn’t be taking the city any time soon, Superman had his men dig trenches to oppose Fortress Gotham, where they would maintain a watchful vigil and ensure that nobody escaped its confines.

It may have protected them for now, but eventually?  
  


It would serve as their tomb.

The man himself couldn’t get close, too fearful of the kryptonite weaponry that shredded his men to pulp and would most assuredly do serious damage to him as well. They waited, strategizing and working out something in their minds as to what might make the city fall to them.

“Superman, we’ve got a problem” Cyborg says, the half machine man walking up to his command tent. “What is it?”

“Weird radio chatter along the walls” the man says. “Talking about some sort of Operation Bombshell. They’re saying that it’s meant to take you out”.

“Ohh really?”

Clark couldn’t help but be skeptical about that. After all, outside of the range of their kryptonite he was invulnerable. “Yeah, something big is about to happen”.

“Yeah, it is. Are the guns ready?”

“They are yeah. Why? Wanna pulverize the city before they get the chance to do anything?”

Superman casts his gaze back to the foreboding wall and nods. “Yes. I want you to order the commencement of the bombardment. Tell our gunners to use the old city zoning charts we have at our disposal. Zero in on schools and hospitals. Anything that will break their…”.

Before the man could finish his sentence, a large explosion erupts directly to their right, sending a shockwave up and down the line that collapses the canvas tent atop the two men. Screams could be heard over the din of the roaring inferno that now consumed a tank. It exploded as the licking flames crept ever closer to the ammo rack, sending bullets from the fifty calibers flying everywhere.

Just as Superman and Cyborg rose to their feet, Cyborg is peppered along his back by some of the exploding ordinance. Normally they wouldn’t have posed much, if any, problem, but one happened to slice through one of the tubes that pumped vital nutrients to his spinal column and thus his brain. 

He falls forward, his body going into shutdown as it tries to deal with preserving Victor Stone’s life. “Dammit…”.

“You okay?”

Superman was nonplussed by the deadly projectiles that scythed through the air, still cutting down soldiers who had been unlucky enough to expose themselves above cover. “No...brain is...shutting down for...n...n...n…”.

Cyborg indeed “shuts down” remaining still at a kneeling position on the ground. Superman wasn’t really sure if he was dead or if he was just repairing himself. He hoped it was the second. After all, it would be hard to replace the man.

“Wow. Rules of combat 101 asshole” a voice says from above him. “Never keep your ordinance next to where you sleep”.

Clark sees a girl with metallic skin floating above him. She was dressed in Jeans, sneakers and a black tanktop with a red star like design in the middle. “And who might you be young lady?” he chides gently.

“Bombshell”.

“Ahh so you’re the big bad weapon they think can take me down huh?”

“Yup”.

  
Clark takes a moment to look around at the devastation the teen had wrought and nods to himself. “Well, judging from the microscopic traces of your power left on the ground I’m going to say that you have some sort of latent atomic energy at your disposal?”

“Right again”.

“Then you should know that that wont kill me” he says. 

“Not aiming to kill you” Amy says, cracking her knuckles. “Just aiming to beat the snot out of you. Give you a taste of what it’s like to be human. Interested?”

“I don’t make it a habit to fight girl’s but considering you’re the first to be brave enough, or maybe dumb enough, to come out from behind that wall? I’ll risk it”.

  
With that Superman lifts up into the air and makes a beeline straight for the woman, who doesn’t even move for a second. She raises her hands and smirks, waiting until the man was a few feet away before letting loose. She is soon encased in the glow of bright red atomic energy, and as Superman is about to throw his first punch, she lets it loose.

It blinds the man of steel first before it sends him crashing back to the Earth, his clothes on fire.

He hadn’t expected that.

He crawls up from a crater that the blast had formed with his impact and tries to settle his eyes on the girl. “Yeah. Gamma radiation can really fuck with you even if you’re an alien from outer space”.

Clark glares at the girl and soon he lets loose with his heat vision. 

“Uhh ohh”.

Amy is able to barely dodge the beam as it rockets past her into the air. ‘Alright, time to act it up Allen. It’s okay. This will work’.

She brings her hand up to her ear piece and clicks it on, communicating with Luthor while using their predetermined lines. “Fuck, Luthor, I don’t think I can take him”.

  
Clark smiles ominously, rising into the air once again to combat the girl. “You catch on quick”. Luthor begins to speak back while knowing that Superman would be listening in on their conversation. “Dammit, get out of there Allen!”

“Will do Lex”.

She manages to duck beneath his fist, quickly delivering a punch of her own into his side. It was only due to the toughness of her skin that it didn’t hurt, but Superman was completely unaffected by her punch.

“Pfft...you hit like a bug” he teases before returning to glaring at her. “You killed a lot of men today” he says ominously. 

“It’s time to put you down”.

Amy doesn’t wait for any further orders from Luthor and she quickly throws out a few of her atomic blasts, localized within pockets in the air of course to prevent a massive amount of destruction. Still, Superman was shrugging off individual blasts that made the detonations of Fat Man and Little Boy over Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like nothing.

She wasn’t faking one thing at least.

She was afraid.

**_Gotham City Docks_ **

“Luthor, we’re in position. Give us the signal when we have to go” Vixen whispers into the radio. She and John were positioned in the wreck of a ship that had washed up upon the shore, apparently having had a severe amount of damage done to it by the artillery strike that had put an end to all of Gotham’s shipping. 

John wasn’t smoking, apparently being conscious of the fact that they were supposed to be in hiding. Vixen could appreciate that. “Affirmative” Luthor’s voice crackles back in her ear. “Bombshell has engaged Superman. He’s distracted and being edged towards the wall”.

“Good to know. Maybe this thing will kill him” she replies hopefully.

“It won’t”.

Her smile drops at that and she rolls his eyes. “Thanks for letting a girl dream Luthor. Vixen out”. She hangs up the communicator and moves closer to John, her hands going to his shoulders. “Penny for your thoughts?”

“Eh you don’t want to hear what I’m thinking right now love”.

“I always like hearing what you’re thinking. You may be an ass John Constantine, but you’re the only one whose kept us all going until Luthor. So...I’m not going to pay you for your thoughts now. You’re going to give them to me for free”.

She leans in and kisses the top of his head. 

“You flirting with me Mari?”

“Ohh gee, how could you tell?”

He laughs to himself before sighing. “Just...thinking back to Zee I guess” he says. “Hmm, bad form to be thinking about another woman right now but okay, what about her?”

“I failed her”.

“Sweetie, I doubt it…”.

“No” he cuts her off. “I did. I took her down this path. I did. We was best mates in school. My dad, well he was scum and hers? Never around. So we got into mischief. Over time it got to being more. I loved her...I really did but...something about the way she’d look at things. It didn’t seem like all she wanted was mischief”. 

He looks away, back over the dark waves where he knew, somewhere out there, was a Atlantean submarine with a hull load of metahumans. “She had this look in her eyes...this anger. I thought, maybe if we found something cool, something really out there, she’d be happy. I brought that damn book to her and...she opened a portal. Made a deal. I don’t wanna get into it”.

Vixen was quiet, letting the man speak on what he wanted, when he wanted. “It sounds like she made her own choice”.

“She wouldn’t have been able to make it if it weren’t for me…” he laments.

“Did you force her to sell her soul?”

“No but…”.

“That’s it. No. The thing about playing with fire John? You get burned. Kids all love fire. Too stupid to know any better. But it’s not the fault of the kid who backs off before its too late if his friend wants to keep being stupid. Understand?” she asks, rubbing his cheek.

“You make a compelling case love…”.

John wasn’t convinced, and he never would be. He would carry the weight of what Zee had done to herself to the grave. He knew that for certain. “Alright, good”.

He reaches out for her waist, crushing her body to his own before placing his lips against hers. Vixen backs up abruptly, worrying John. “Ohh no, no..sweetie...I really do want to kiss you and all” she soothes. “But mission first”.

He let’s go of her abruptly and bushes, turning back towards the sea. “You’re right. Sorry, sorry. I uh...got out of hand”.

“Don’t apologize” she teases, pecking his lip. “When this is over and we get a minute to breath, try that again”.

She picks up her binoculars and scans the waves that crash up against the destroyed hulks that were still bobbing up and down in the water, her eyes scanning for a periscope. John just admired her curvature and smile to himself, feeling a bit better with the woman’s abrupt ministrations. “Alright. Sounds good”.

**_Star of Atlantis, Atlantean Submarine, Gotham Harbor_ **

Anatoli paced up and down the walkway, working on something that he could use to inspire his men on to victory. He wasn’t much for speeches but he knew that now was the time for one.

Each of their eyes was locked on him, and all of the men were ready. Those who did not access to metahuman powers had the AK-47s loaded and primed, ready for use against any target that was hostile.

“Soldiers of the 4th Rifle Division” he says, using the name they’d all settled on that harkened back to the Great Patriotic War. They were barely a platoon, let alone a division and they focused on anything but rifles.

He stops, pausing for a moment as he looks eyes with Raina who nods, urging him onwards. “We are about to enter into the unremitting jaws of battle yet again. I would rather do it with nobody but you”. He stops to stand in the middle, crossing his arms behind his back in a military posture. “Many of us might not survive. But who is our duty too?”

“The Motherland!” they all shout back in unison.

“Excellent. And what does our Motherland wish us to do?”

“Fight!”

“Not one step backwards comrades. We move forward at all costs” he says. “Now, we may not like the capitalists much da? But, are they not better than this Superman character? These Gothamites might be a special breed too” he says. “When the rest of the world folded, they turned themselves into a fortress”.

“Like our Stalingrad Colonel!” Terra pipes up ecstatically before realizing that she’d spoken out of turn and blushing.

Knayzev is nonplussed though, and smiles at the girl. “Da comrade Markov. Like our Stalingrad. So, let us treat it like such eh? Defend it to your last breath alongside our new, and undoubtedly colorful brothers in arms”.

Garth slides down the ladder leading from the command center down into the sub, gesturing that he was going to turn on the radio. “Something’s coming in. We should probably listen”.

KGBeast nods and allows the youth, whom had spent most of the trip trying to engage Raina in conversation, to do so. The radio clatters to life and a crystal clear voice comes through. “To any of the metahumans hiding upon the fringes of Gotham. Superman and his forces are distracted. Make your way to the docks now! Our only chance is through superior force. Move now or we wont get another chance!”.

“That was Comrade Luthor. Garth, surface now!” Raina shouts out, readying herself and the men under her command as they all shuffle into their assigned battle positions. The Atlantean was many things, and prompt was at least one. 

“All of you get ready! Some of our new allies will meet us at the docks! We fight on! URAAAA!” Anatoli shouts, raising his own battle rifle while the others join in, the cacophony of the almost legendary Russian war cry stirring their hearts as the sub begins to make its ascent.

**_Gotham’s Defensive Perimeter_ **

Luthor was watching with an intensity Mercy rarely saw on the man, and he was mumbling to himself as well. “Come on Allen, get close and then get out of there” he mutters, worrying as the girl dodges yet another punch, managing to catch the kryptonian’s arm and trying to smash it. It does not good, and Superman just laughs her off as they continue their fight in mid air.

“She’s going to get killed Lex!” Mercy shouts out fearfully. “Just a little closer…” he says, angling the device and trying to get Superman in his sights. 

He pushes Bombshell back and manages to grab her by the throat, ending the fight as she flayed in the air. “DAMMIT LEX DO SOMETHING!”

“I am..” he says, smiling to himself. “The bastards just in range”.

He flips the switch on the particle transmitter and sends a barrage of microscopic kryptonite barreling into the tyrant who writhes in pain, letting Amy go as he begins to fall back to the Earth. The silver skinned girl grasps her own throat, trying to soothe what was undoubtedly a painful injury.

“GOT HIM!” Lex shouts out excitedly, picking up his communicator. “Congratulations Bombshell. You’ve officially kicked Superman’s ass” he says, a rare moment where he felt he could indulge in some pettiness.

“Thanks” she gasps back. “I feel like I...AHHHH!”

Nobody had seen it coming, and thus nobody was prepared for it, but as Superman fell to the Earth he managed to get one good bead on Bombshell. With the last bit of energy he had, he uses his heat vision and manages to cut through the girl’s side. 

He continues to fall, slamming into the ground, out of the fight for now. But Bombshell was still injured. “Ohh no…”.

Through the sights he could see that the girl was in severe pain and was gripping her side fearfully. Her voice, tear stained as it was, comes back through the communicator. “Lex...I’m leaking atomic energy”.

“Damn...get back to the city…”.

“If I blow while inside of the city everyone will die Lex”.

He grips his knuckles tightly, fearfully even. “Just get back to me Allen. I can find a way to fix this!”.

“Lex what’s going on?” Mercy asks. The bald man turns to his lover and shakes his head. “Bombshell’s been breached. She’s leaking atomic energy. We need to get her patched and taken care of or she’s going to die!”

“Bombshell I’m giving you a direct order!” he screams back into the ear piece. “Get back here…”.

“I’m sorry Lex. I can’t let you guys die. I’m...I’m going where it wont hurt anyone”. The girl suddenly rockets up into the sky, away from the city until she was practically a dot in the sky and then nothing. Communications with her were still active though. “Amy…” Lex says, the apology already on his lips.

“Did….ohh god it hurts...did I really kick Superman’s ass Lex?”

“You did sweetie. You did an excellent job” Lex says, placing his palms down on the side of armored wall to try and keep his composure. Mercy couldn’t help herself and tears began to slide down her face. “Awesome...can you do me a favor?”

“Anything”.

“I’m in the exosphere now” she shivers. “I wont hurt anybody here. It’s...it’s coming but can you just tell Gar that I love him, and I’m thinking about him while I’m doing this?”

Lex nods to himself. “Of course Allen”.

“Good….I just don’t want him to be sad….Ohh GOD! IT’S HAPPENING! AHHHHHHH!” 

They look up into the sky at the exact moment that Bombshell is overtaken by the atomic energy that swirled within her and it could even be seen in the sky. “Dammit...Allen”.

“Luthor, what’s going on?”

Batman’s gruff voice takes over the communications and Luthor wasn’t sure what to say. “Bombshell did her job. Superman is down for now. You, Hawkman and Ice are cleared to make your attack run against the artillery”.

“What happened to her?”

“She’s gone”.

The other end of the line goes silent as everyone appreciates the scope of their loss. They hadn’t known each other long, but it was clear that she would be missed and honored for the sacrifice she made. “I’m sorry”.

“Just...make her sacrifice mean something Batman”.

He abruptly cancels out the open line and turns to Mercy, taking the woman into his arms as both of them try to come to terms with what happened, what they saw before their very eyes and were powerless to stop, and comfort one another.

“She was just a kid Lex” Mercy says tearfully. Lex rubs her back and shakes his head. “No. She was a woman. A very brave woman who gave all she had”.

“Whose going to tell Gar?”

“I will” Lex says. “I’ll tell him after this is over”.

**_Back at the Docks_ **

A full fledged war had broken out between those trying to retreat into Gotham, those trying to defend them while they retreated into Gotham, and those trying to kill anyone who wanted to get away from the regime.

“Hello John!” Zatanna shouts, as she advances upon the man across the ruined dock. “Hello love. Still wearing the face covering? What’s the matter, don’t think you’re pretty anymore?”

That got to Zatanna and she brings her hands up while uttering an incantation. “Mih nrub”. Fire shoots out from her hands, and the exorcist has just enough time to bring up a shield to block the oncoming fireball. 

“Well, that wasn’t very nice” he says while twirling his hands about one another, muttering an incantation while looking at the water. “You really think you can beat me John?” Zatanna asks, ripping off her mask before hissing at the man. “I know things that would make you cry in your bed at night. Horror that you never would’ve imagined. All you know are parlor tricks. An exorcist playing at Merlin”.

“You’re probably right love” John says, his hands encased in a purple glow now. “But I’m really good at taking out the trash”.

That moment of confusion his words caused was all the man needed. “Alligabis os eious” he shouts out as two tentacles formed completely of water rise from the turbulent sea and grasp Zatanna. One wraps about her mid section, and for a moment she struggles to fight it, opening her mouth to use yet another incantation before the second tentacle closes around her and prevents her speech. They quickly drag her into the water, and effectively take her out of the fight.

“Wow! That was pretty cool” Vixen shouts out slashing her claws across one of Superman’s soldiers before tossing him against a wooden piling and knocking him out. “All in a days work”.

  
War was raging all around them, and even at that moment Beast Boy had morphed into a gorilla and charged Grodd, slamming into the other ape with a force that would have turned any human into nothing more than paste. “Surrender to us boy” Grodd roars out. “You cannot win!”

Beast Boy doesn’t respond with anything more than a roar himself as he picks up the startled gorilla and tosses him back across the beach, continuing the offensive.  
  
Canary and Katana move across the beach with ease, the blonde using her scream to peacefully incapacitate the soldiers who were trying to advance upon the guarded opening that had emerged in the wall. 

“Hmm this is fun eh Samurai?”

“Hai”.

Katana brings her sword down upon the rifle of one of the soldiers, slicing it, and a few of his fingers, in half.

“Now that ain’t fair!” a voice says before an electrical shock hits the sand before them, turning some of it into glass. When they look up they see a black man with electricity shooting out of his hands. “I’m only gonna give you one chance to surrender” he says. Katana looks back to Canary, a question readable through the eyehole’s of her mask.

The blonde shrugs. “He’s all yours sweetie. Go get him”.

The samurai nods and rushes forward, hunching down to avoid the blasts of electrical discharge while also moving left and right. It made it nearly impossible for the man to get a correct bead on her. 

“Glad you choose to let creepy handle my friend” a voice says from behind her. She makes to move but is interrupted by something sharp pointing at the back of her head. “I wouldn’t if I were you. An arrow through the skull? Really not a good way to die. Especially not for a hottie like you”.

She sighs and puts her hands up, knowing that someone who talked like that would inevitably open themselves up for an attack. “Step forward a bit. Read your file. Want enough space between us so that I can put one through you if I need”.

“Is this really necessary?” Dinah asks, letting the battle around her filter out of her mind while she complies with the man’s wishes. “Alright, turn around”.

She does and her eyes finally land on who had gotten the drop on her. It was a blonde man dressed all in green, a bow and notched arrow still held in his hands while a domino mask covered his eyes. 

“Wow hot damn. You must be Black Canary. The file wasn’t kidding when it said you were an absolute babe” the man teases.

Dinah rolls her eyes, wanting to see if she should use her shout or if she should pummel this guy into the ground instead. “Name’s Green Arrow”.

“Didn’t ask”.

“Aww don’t be that way” he says with a fake pout. “We’re going to win and win big time. Might as well make some friends on the other side to lessen the blow and with an ass like that? Well, let’s just say I wouldn’t be opposed to having you on my arm at the victory parade”.

“As tempting as that offer is? I’m married with kids so...yeah no”.

“You a mama? Phew well damn you certainly don’t look it”.

“I don’t like flirting with assholes who join tyrants sooo...can we get this over with?” she asks, raising her fists as she had already decided that punching this goon’s face in would be infinitely more satisfying than just blasting him away with her voice.

“Ehh, suit yourself” he says, bringing the bow up again. “Really such a shame to kill…”.

He doesn’t finish his sentence, in fact, he’d probably never speak again. A giant foot took that moment to come crashing down atop the man, smashing him into nothing more than sludge at the bottom of the shoe.

  
Dinah was confused but slowly looks up to see a towering woman above her. She was as tall as a small skyscraper. “Ohh god!” she hears boomed out, the woman speaking. “I stepped on someone! Ohh God! Ohh God! I didn’t mean to! I didn’t mean to..I’m so sorry!” she shouts down, shrinking suddenly to a normal size. 

Her boot print is left in the sand, and in it is a flattened and bloody mess. “Ohh god…” the redhead says before turning and retching, adding the contents of her stomach to the beach. “Well...to be fair sweetie?” says a character who had jumped off of her shoulder before she reverted to a normal height. “You didn’t exactly see him sooooo…”.

“Umm, who the hell are you two?”

The man twists his head over his shoulder and smiles at the blonde, almost making her vomit with how horrible that looked. He turns, spinning the rest of his body cartoonishly. “Ohh sorry.. My name’s O’Brien. Eel O’Brien and this is my wife, Giganta”.

The redhead had regained some of her composure and managed to walk up to the two, wiping her mouth. “Was...was he one of the good guys?”

“Define good guys?” Dinah asks, unsure of which side these two were fighting for. 

“Justice Society?”

Dinah smiles and shakes her head. “Nope, that was a Justice League asshole, still, refrain from killing in the future, okay? We really don’t do that”.

“I’m so sorry!” Giganta says. “It was an accident. I really didn’t see him. It’s so foggy out here and Eel said I should go big to see over the fog and…”.

“It’s fine. It’s fine. But we really should get back to kicking the Justice League’s ass?”.

Further out in the sea, the submarine had finally risen and as soon as the water was off the deck, the Russians moved out. Small arms fire was slamming into the shocked soldiers’s rear, not having expected their amphibious assault to be countered by another amphibious assault.

Anatoli raises his rifle and fires into a dingy, killing all the men inside. “Soldiers! Show them the might of Mother Russia!” 

“URRAAAAHH!”

“Azarath Metrion Zinthos”.

Raina flies into the air atop a black sphere, conjuring up tendrils that wrap around the soldiers and pull them out of their boats and into the water. Terra was much less delicate, and she simply summons rocks up from the ocean floor to crush the forces of the Justice League.

“But they’re killing!” Giganta says petulantly. 

“True sweetie, those are Russians though. They kill anything”.

“Hmmphh”.

“The tide is turning” Katana says, advancing back to the group, bloody and battered and also partly singed, a knocked out Black Lightning being dragged behind her. “Alright. Batman should be making his run on the artillery soon, so let’s hope that goes as well as this does. Do you guys know of any other metas hiding out here?” Dinah asks, turning to the two she’d just met.

“Aside from us? Not really no” Plastic Man says. 

“Dammit, well...I hope this was all worth it”.

**_Main Artillery Battery_ **

Bruce was tearing down the destroyed streets of the suburbs outside of Gotham. The batmobile was excellent at handling such terrain and indeed it almost soared. Small arms fire would occasionally hit it, but it did nothing more than scratch the paint. 

He reaches forward and flicks on his radio.

“Hawkman do you read me?”

“Yes Batman”.

“Are you ready? The artillery is in my sight” the caped crusader says, readying the homemade missile launcher they’d managed to rig up to the batmobile.

“We’re ready Batman”.

“Good”.

He doesn’t say anymore as the vehicle rockets into the clearing that Superman had set up his precious guns in. With one click of the trigger, the missiles shoot out of the carrier attached to the top of the car, slamming into each gun with precision.  
  
He could only hit the four right to his immediate front before turning away, needing to get back to the city before the army could zero in on him. The guns explode in vibrant flame, the shells stacked beside them adding to the inferno with vigor. 

Luckily the crews that manned the guns had been away from them, serving as cleanup duty to the attack that Bombshell had launched on Superman’s forward base.

“Hawkman, Ice, the rest are yours”.

“Our pleasure Batman”.

Up above Hawkman was circling picking out the rest of the guns. Ice was strapped to his chest in a harness that allowed her free use of her hands. “How are you feeling Tora?” he calls out.

The white haired woman was smiling ear to ear. “Fantatisk! This is greit! So beautiful!”

“Well, just make sure you freeze those guns up. With them frozen the bomb will do the rest” he says, swooping them in close to avoid the anti air batteries that Superman had the foresight to construct. 

“Ja!”.

“Good! Here we go!”

Ice raises her hands and summons her power, the force of a blizzard coming down on the guns and serving the added purpose of hiding their shapes from anyone who might seek to bring them down. 

She concentrates harder and suddenly the guns are frozen, hidden forever behind a sheet of translucent ice. “Alright, ready?” he asks, scanning up and down the line as he swoops in for another pass, hoping they didn’t miss any of them. 

“Ja! Give me the bomb!”

“Are you sure you want to do it?”

“Vaer sa snill?” she asks cutely. Carter smirks and reached onto his back over his shoulder, retracting the small device that would be enough to level and shatter what was left of the battery. “Alright Tora. Here you go! Get ready!”.

She takes the device and primes it, both of them having been made aware of how to do so. “Takk skall du ha! Faen Deg Superman!”

The platinum blonde throws down the device and smiles as it lands center mass. Hawkman, having watched her, swoops up, wanting to avoid being caught in the blast when it inevitably comes.

And come it did.

A fiery explosion rockets through the sky, adding to the mayhem a sound akin to broken glass shattering everywhere. The guns were no more. In fact it seemed like the whole area was no more, the ground itself caving in following a massive explosion that shoots flame over fifty feet in the air

“Woah! It looks like we hit an ammo dump as well!”

“Hawkman, we saw the explosion. We’re going to assume that you and Batman were successful?”

“Yes Luthor. The guns are history. Ancient history” the man gruffly retorts. “Good. I’m sounding the retreat. We’ve already lost too much. But this was worth it. We bought ourselves time. Luthor out”.

The Thanagarian didn’t want to ask right then what he had meant by “losses”, as now was not the time. They needed to get out of harms way, and he especially needed to get Ice back to safety. As he flies back to Gotham, knowing that he wouldn’t be taken down by friendly AA, he does mull over something.

“Tora?”

“Hmm?”

“Did you just say “Fuck you Superman” in Norwegian?”

The woman blushes and looks away, trying to enjoy the sights though there wasn’t much to offer besides devastation. “I’m sorry”.

“Don’t be” he says. “It’s cute when you curse”.


	22. Chapter 22

**_Themyscira_ **

“My queen what is down here for us?” Amphitre asks impatiently, her mind focused only on stripping the flesh from her remaining sisters who hadn’t given into the taste. A horde of other Amazons, some discomforted but still hungry while the others were too far gone, followed behind, each also eager to finish the conquest of their island.

“Althaia is still leading our remaining sisters” Amphitre says, angered by the lack of response she receives from Diana who continues to lead them deeper and deeper underground towards the gates of Tartarus. 

“Patience my general. Patience”.

Amphitre scowls, being anything other than patient. She dreamed of tearing into their remaining sisters and devouring the tastiest morsels, though she knew that over time that wouldn’t be enough. The stock of Amazons would diminish as their ranks grew and consumed more and more until there would be nothing left. They would then have to throw themselves out into the world to assuage their appetites. 

Man’s world.

She was already salivating at the thought of such an invasion. ‘I wonder what they taste like’ she ponders to herself before bringing her mind away from the daydreams which had started to occupy it and focuses on yet another attempt to dissuade her newly stated course of action. 

  
Diana didn’t seem to realize that she wasn’t alone, so focused was she on the gateway to the underworld. In her hands she held two items. One was the large steel key that would unlock the gateway. She had taken it off of her mother after carefully searching over the woman’s quarters.

The other was a skull, picked clean of all remnants of flesh. They all knew it was the skull of Hippolyta, and if any of them were discomforted by the vicious murder and consumption of their old queen they were smart enough to keep quiet about it.

They finally reach the bottom of the staircase and enter into the ashlike ground level of the lands around Tartarus. It had been the sight of many battles, both before the gates were closed and during the tenure of the Amazons as the guardians of the underworld. Numerous times had Hades, Ares or some other figure escaped, only to be thrown back by the combined arms and strengths of the eternal sisterhood.

That sisterhood was no more, and what was to come through the gates this time was infinitely worse than even the God of War.

They pass the destroyed buildings that had once been an outpost. Abandoned and rusted weapons littered the ground alongside the bones and discarded armor of the fallen. This was a damned region in all senses of the word and thus it would forever remain. 

“Diana…”.

“Shh...do you hear that?”

The changed Amazons all looked about themselves, craning their ears for any sound that might hint at what their queen was speaking of.

“No my Queen” Amphitre says irritatedly.

“Exactly. Nothing. It is the sound of silence before the dinner bells” she explains, the group moving up towards the gate that dominated the whole scene. It stood, hundreds of feet high and wide at the very end of the cavern, an ancient lock made by the Olympians the only thing keeping it closed.

Purposefully Diana walks to the gate and retracts the key, placing it into the mechanism and beginning to turn it. It would take a while to open fully, but the process was started.

“My queen this is foolish!” Amphitre shouts, being able to take it no more. “We could be feasting now! Preparing to put the world under our very heel and what are we doing instead? Fetching a man from the underworld? Your lover?”

This seems to draw the attention of the other Amazons who all regard one another with curious looks, trying to gauge where their sisters might stand on this issue. When a implied majority is reached they all move behind Amphitre, joining their mutiny to hers.

Diana is amused by this more than anything else.

“You are not just freeing a man my sisters”, she begins. “Nor are you simply freeing my lover. You are freeing the one who will be king of the Amazons”.

“KING?!”

That sent an uproar through the woman who had long lived without man’s presence and had indeed grown to hate the very thought of men in many cases. Amphitre draws her sword and moves forward, threatening the demigod who was unconcerned at best.

“The Amazons shall never be ruled by a man!”.

Diana chuckles to herself. “Ohh so you’re going to kill me to prevent this?”

Amphitre could only smile. “Why not? You killed your mother for the crown did you not? It would be hardly fair for you to complain about me taking it through trial by combat”.

“And if I refuse to fight you?”

“Then I shall cut you down where you stand and seize the crown from your head” she says, the others noticing that the large doors were beginning to open. They take a fearful step back, afraid of what might come through on the other side. 

“Hmm...interesting” Diana says. “It’s a good plan Amphitre. It is smart...or at least it would be if things hadn’t changed so much so recently”.

The door crashes open with a clatter, and the flames of Tartarus lick out through the crack in the door, forcing the Amazons back in fear of being scorched. Diana herself had no such fear and as the flesh of her back was cooked from the heat she moved not. A smile comes to her lips instead, as she knows that he’s coming closer.

“Diana…” a voice says from the flames, though it comes out as if it was spoken right behind her. She smiles and turns, urging the shadow on. “Come to me beloved”.

The figure gets closer and closer, and the Amazons recoil in horror at the sight before them. Tantalus, the king of Siyplus, emerges. He was ragged and weak, thin, horror personified as the skin of his face is pulled back from starvation. Diana didn’t care though, and she moves towards him, taking her in his arms. 

“Tantalus...my love”.

“Diana...the pleasure I feel simply to hold you again” he whispers in a voice only meant from her. The Amazons didn’t know what to do, and even Amphitre had seemed to grow faint at the sight of the man before her.

“You are even more beautiful than I imagined” he says, pulling back and caressing her face lovingly. She leans into his touch, murring at finally being able to feel him.

“I’ve brought you a gift”.

Slowly she reaches up and hands to show him Hippolyta’s skull, something that Tantalus instantly appreciates. “Ahh the skull of Hippolyta, the last queen of the Amazons before my beloved ascended to bring them to their true greatness”.

He wraps his arm about her waist and brings the former Wonder Woman close. “Now you see? The true folly of the gods to reject what I offered them? Flesh from my own flesh. There could be no greater sacrifice Diana”.

“I see how foolish my father was now Tantalus. Truly”.

“This...this is insanity!” Amphitre shouts out fearfully, hoping that she could still count on the loyalty of her sisters. Many seemed resolute, some of their original fire coming back to them at the sight of such a menace to the world before them. They grip their bloodied swords and spears, ready to charge forward and thrust them into the famed cannibal king.

“And who is this my dove?” he asks, gesturing towards Amphitre. Diana smiles and cuddles herself into his chest. “A second present for you my dear. A meal. You must be famished”.

  
Amphitre sees the hunger in the man’s eyes and backs off in fear, instantly regretting her impatience. “No...no...my queen please…”. She looks back at her sisters and sees that the fire that had burned within them mere moments before was gone, and now they were eager to curry favor with Diana.

“Well thank you Diana. What a good wife you will make” he teases, licking his lips and stepping forward, his maw opened to expose the rows of sharp teeth that would soon be upon the Amazon warrior. 

His limbs crack and break while he moves, making him grow as his body distorts itself into a large thin limbed and horrifying monster. Amphitre makes to run but Tantalus reaches out and grasps her within his fingers, crushing the woman’s body between them.

She screams in pain and all Diana can do is look on in awe at the man’s power that he so easily showcased before her. The others were in much the same position, though their awe was fearful in place of loving.

“No! Please! Please!”

He doesn’t hear her words and instead brings her upwards and clamps his enormous mouth around her head. With the ease one might bite off the head of a piece of broccoli, he snaps off her head, covering the Amazons nearest to him in a thin layer of viscera and gore.

Diana falls to her knees worshipfully, raising her hands out as she watches her sisters begin to run. Tantalus was unconcerned and simply throws the headless body of Amphitre into his mouth, munching her up the rest of the way. She notices how his skin becomes much less pale and sallow, and even fills out in places due to the refreshment of the meal provided to him.

He slowly resumes his more mortal form and turns to the woman, a bloody mouth smile on his lips. “Your sisters are hiding in the ruins” he says, looking up towards the exit and noticing that none had made it to the stairs.

“Let us feast upon the weakest. You made our numbers a bit too large my dear” he chides gently. “We must feed who we change you know?”

“Of course Tantalus I am so…”.

He cuts her off and lovingly presses his lips to her forehead. “Shhh shhhh shhhh. My dear..no need for a queen to apologize...especially since there are other ways for you to make it up to me later” he says, using his snakelike tongue to tease out across the woman’s neck while he crushes her body into his. Diana moans as his hands trail lower, teasing her pert and full cheeks through the armored skirt she wore. “There are other appetites for me to partake in as well...and you can help me”.

“Those appetites are my own as well love”.

He smiles a toothy grin and pulls away from the girl. “Let us feast and ensure we are well fed before such acts Diana. For after that? The world lays before us”.

The two lovers were so enraptured by their embrace of one another that they did not notice the other shadow that crept through the door. It showcased itself as a dark mist that skittered above the debris and much of the ground below it. It clung back, almost jumping as the doors of Tartarus begin to seal themselves in.

“I must get to the surviving amazons” the voice says to itself, moving to the side of the ruins, avoiding the two flesh crazed figures who had begun to stalk through the wreckage in search of prey. ‘Hopefully the corrupted will keep them busy for a while. Where are...ohh..yes, I sense them’ the mist thinks to itself, casting itself up over the stairs and advancing out of the darkness into the light of the sun above.

‘I can sense their battles. They are holding but they shall not hold forever. They need assistance’.

Once outside of the cave and away from the eyes of Diana and Tantalus the mist stops and straightens itself, forming into a figure slowly. When it is done and the mist fully dissipated, Ares, the God of War, stands there in his splendor.

“What a world this is when the last hope of the Amazons is me” he chuckles mirthlessly to himself, taking off down the trail that led to the cliffside. He could already sense it.

The war that the world was experiencing. How it tore the very Earth beneath it up. Even on this island the clanging of swords against shield, battle howls and the cries of the wounded split the air. Once upon a time he would enjoy it but it only filled him with misery now.

He looks down at the burning city of Themyscira and tries to gauge best where the survivors would be. He closes his eyes and breathes in deeply, letting all of his surroundings come to him.

He sees quick flashes of battle shots. An Amazon cleaving one of her sisters in half with a sword, and another, one of the cannibals, biting into the shoulder of another. What he sees similar in all of these shots are the masts of ships in the rear.

“The docks. They’re at the docks”.

He begins to run again, aided this time by the downward of his path. Bodies were strewn everywhere and he doesn’t even stop to pick up a sword, opting instead to summon one to him.

“Whoever you are that this weapon belonged to understand that your sacrifice will save the lives of your sisters” he says before adding a mental, ‘and possibly the world’.

**_The Church of St. Dumas_ **

Jason hadn’t been back to this church since Bruce and Harleen’s wedding. In fact, he’d gone to mass, but this church was so out of the way in the center of the city that he hadn’t attended one here. Still, this is where Father Blood led him, and he felt an urgent need to see it through.

The sounds of fighting echo up and down the walls that were protecting the city, and Jason has to fight every cell of his body that urges him into action. He knew that Bruce and Harleen, and even Dinah or Vic were in the thick of the fighting and he wanted to be nowhere but by their side.

“Jason come quickly!”

The priest throws open the doors of the old stone church and moves immediately to the right, down the staircase into the basement. “Father Blood! Wait! What the hell is going on?”

The priest stops at his words, turning to look at the boy and making him believe that he was about to be chastised for cursing. Instead Blood reaches forward and slams his hands down on Jason’s shoulders. “Hell is exactly what is happening my friend”.

Just like that the priest turns away and continues to advance down the stairs. Jason follows like a machine, intent on reaching their intended destination so he could get answers at the very least.

They move into the cold and drafty basement which seems to hold nothing of interest other than the detritus of centuries of usage. The man doesn’t look at any of it though, and moves purposefully to the far end of the room. Upon the wall is a strange looking stone implanted into the brick.    
  
It was a shield and a crown, embossed over a flaming sword.

Father Blood reaches forward and presses it inward, opening a passageway as the walls slides into two. “Ohh God…”.

“The others are already assembled and waiting for us Jason” the man says, stepping down into the dark. He takes one moment to look back, a serious and stoic expression upon his face. “Your destiny is awaiting you at the bottom of these stairs boy. I just have to ask if you’re brave enough to reach out and seize it”.

  
With that he turns and disappears into the darkness, leaving Jason alone in the basement. He is trying to think about what was going on, rationalize the utterly insane happenings in his mind. He couldn’t come to a solid conclusion.

Not without seeing what was at the bottom.

He moves forward and steps into the unknown, resolving to not stop until he was facing what the priest was trying to show him.

_ “Brave knight, though will honor those you love with your works”. _

The voice of St. Dumas enters his head and indeed goads him on as his foot impacts with each step. Slowly he sees a light forming at the furthest reaches of his vision outward towards the end of the descent.

“Why me?” he asks, knowing that the voice would respond.

_ “Why not you?” _

He couldn’t help but feel a little angry at that answer. 

_ “Does the bowl question it’s maker as to why it was made to suit the purpose it serves? No, and neither should you question your maker who hath ordained you to be his instrument in Gotham”. _

Jason didn’t have an answer to that, and neither did he have the time to try and sort it out. He was at the bottom of the steps and standing before a doorway. Without any hesitation he enters through it, stepping into the center of what appeared to be a large and well lit council chamber.

Father blood stood in the center of the room, his head bowed and his hands clapped together in a sign of reverence while above them, seated behind the walls of the raised platform, were many figures wearing robes. 

  
At his entrance they all rise and bow their heads, mimicking Blood in his act of respect.

Jason was floored, utterly floored. ‘Is this the Court of Owls thing all over again?’.

“Welcome Jason Todd-Wayne” the robed figure in the middle says, reaching up to push the robe off of his head and revealing his wizened face and grey hair. The others follow suit, and though he recognizes none of them, he knows by their dress that they were priests and nuns.

“Who are you?”

“My name is Grandmaster Jean Paul Valley of the Order of St Dumas” the man responds, casting his hands out to indicate the assembled group in his next proclamation. “And these are the brave men and women of the Order of St. Dumas. Soldiers of God and defenders of Gotham. We’ve been here since the earliest days of its settlement, using this new city to try and provide a beacon of light to the rest of the world”.

“I hate to break it you” Jason says. “But that isn’t at all what Gotham is”.

The man nods sagely. “Of course not. But it does spark and shine with that divine potential does it not?” he asks with one eyebrow raised. “Even now it resists the call of tyranny, fighting with every last fiber of its being to remain free of the likes of Superman”.

“That’s different..”.

“How so?”

“It isn’t how it’s like on the streets” he protests. “People live in fear. They don't want to leave their houses. They don’t even want to look outside” he says. “This is the last city that you want to peg your hopes on”.

  
The Grandmaster leans back and smiles, interlocking his fingers together and studying the boy with a smile. “Did feeling that way make you take on the mantle of Robin in the same way that it made your father and mother assume the shape of bats?”

Jason casts his eyes to the ground, not knowing how these people knew about their identities.

“Be at ease my boy. Be at ease” the man comforts. “Your secret is safe with us. We vow before God to never divulge your secrets. Besides...having you exposed as Robin and your family as this city’s protectors serves us in no way” he explains.

Jason Blood takes that as his cue to step up into the middle of the floor. With conjured flames in his hands he mumbles an incantation that nobody save himself could hear.

The floor rumbles and slowly what looks like a stone container rises up from the center confines of the floor. Jason had many questions, but first and foremost he couldn’t fight the draw he felt towards the stone sarcophagus. “Go on” Valley urges him. “Open it. Much will be revealed in you doing so”.

Father Blood steps back and moves onto his knees, assuming a position of prayer. Nobody knew that at that moment he was praying for the lord’s forgiveness in regards to his failure in Barbara’s case. He didn’t know why, but watching Jason move off into the unknown, alone, made him think of the poor redhead who’d died, been resurrected, and then tossed into the cold war by Etrigan’s hand.

‘Lord forgive me…’.

Jason was unaware of the war raging within his teacher’s body, and his hands now gently rest on the sides, his fingers working to push the top off. It falls with thunderous noise, clattering against the floor. He was surprised that it didn’t shatter, though his mind doesn’t long remain on that miracle.

Instead he is looking down on the contents of the stone, surprised to not find a body.

Instead he finds armor, ancient by the design but still unrusted and indeed as clean as when it had been first placed within the confines of its container.

“The armor of St. Dumas” the grandmaster intones while Jason hears the voice of said saint in his mind once again.

_ “Take it. It’s yours. I bequeath it to you Jason” _

“Do you know who Saint Dumas was?” Valley asks Jason who couldn’t tear his eyes away from the crusader armor. “Only from the book Father Blood gave me”.

“Ahh yes...very good brother” the man says, turning to his still prayerful colleague. “But you only know half the story….”.

_ “The lord uses even the greatest of wretches for his designs Jason. Always remember that it is never too late for anyone…”. _

“Before he joined the Templar order, St. Dumas was a mercenary” the man explains. “He raped and pillaged his way across the battlefields of Europe with the tenacity of a norseman. His soul was so blackened by his sin that it could easily be assumed he would number amongst the worst that hell contained within its gates. However...while on campaign in Germany...it is said an angel appeared to him”.

Jason was enraptured by the story and indeed he could see it playing out before his very eyes.

_ The horse draws himself up, kicking his legs out and whining in fear at the apparition before him. Dumas himself was almost unhorsed, and it was by luck alone that he remained in the saddle. _

_ The angel was beautiful, though he could not tell if it was man or woman. It glared at him with a penetrating disdainful gaze. “Why do you harm those whom you could protect? Have you no mind to the glory of God?” _

Jason shakes these visions away, trying to bring himself back to the topic at hand, but still...he felt that more was going on here. “After that” the grandmaster continues, “St. Dumas enlisted in the Templar order. He forsook all pleasures of the flesh and lust for wealth in favor of a desire to right the wrongs he’d done. He set off on a holy crusade, defeating demons and monsters all under the banner of the church”.

“What does this have to do with me?” Jason asks, knowing the history behind most of this but still wanting to be respectful. Jean Paul looks down at the boy and nods. “What indeed. In fact Jason, it has everything to do with you”.

He points to the armor. “Through the centuries we have sought to keep the principles that guided St. Dumas alive. We have chosen champions that best suit the needs of right and wrong but...we have failed. Our last attempt happened over two hundred years ago and ended with tragedy. The suit of sorrows, the legendary armor of St. Dumas...it has an affect on people” he says.

Jason Blood finally rises to his feet and turns to the boy. “It uses the weight of the wearer’s sins against them and eventually drives them mad. You see, each stitch, each piece of chainmail and each armor plate was made by Dumas in response to one of his sins. Each carry with it that black weight”.

“And his past sins echo even into today” the Grandmaster says. “Jason, what I am about to tell you will be a shock, so I will just say it. You are the descendant of St. Dumas”.

“What?”

“Did you not believe that a Saint could father a child in sin? Especially before his days as a Saint?” the man chuckles. “Yes. The blood of St. Dumas runs through you, but, oddly enough you serve yet another cause that makes you more apt to wear this armor with ease”.

“Your sins Jason” Father Blood explains. “They are not great, and the ones you have are mitigated by the heroism and sacrifice you have shown before this point. You are the antithesis of Dumas, a man who would take up his cause, not as a means of atonement, but as one who simply years to do the right thing”.

_ “You are meant to be this city’s protector Jason” Dumas whispers in his ear. “It’s spiritual protector who can prevent it from falling into the darkness”. _

“No, Batman and Batwoman….” he protests before he himself is cut off.

“Are heroes yes. But perhaps...perhaps they are not what this city truly needs” the man goes on gently, not wanting to offend the boy. “You hear the sword and you hear the armor don’t you? Even now Dumas is most likely whispering in your ear, urging you to take up your birthright”.

He looks down at the armored helm with naked desire. It did feel...right. 

“Tell me Jason” Father Blood asks, wanting to get to the root of the issue. “Are you done fighting for this city? Have you truly abandoned her to a dark fate?”

“No…”.

“And yet, you know, deep in your heart that you have no way forward as the protoge of the Batman? Your father?”

“Yes” he admits sadly.

“Then this is your chance” he explains. “Mold your own identity and stake yourself out as a defender in your own right. A knight” he says. “Tell me, do you truly not wish for this?”

He did. 

He wanted to reach out and gather up the suit of sorrows, fit it to himself and jump into the fray once more. 

“Yes….I do”.

Jean Paul rises with a smile. “Do you swear to follow the precepts of our order, and do you pledge your life to defend that for which we stand? That being truth, justice and the formation of the Kingdom of God?”

“I do”.

“Then it is settled, Jason Todd Wayne, descendent of Dumas. You shall join our ranks where you will be trained in the necessary arts of war” the Grandmaster explains. “I’m ready now” Jason protests, pointing backwards. “A war is going on outside of the city right now! They need me!”

Blood stops him and places a hand on his shoulder. “Not yet Jason. You are well trained yes, but the training you shall receive here will not only prepare you for the battlefield but for eternity” he says. “You must be ready. This war? It’ll pass and it’ll end with Gotham’s victory as it has been foretold. But the war that comes after? That is the one that most concerns you?”

“Why? How do you know all of this?”

The priest smiles lightly. “Not all things are as they appear Jason” he says, understating his own situation greatly. “I have the power of foresight. I do not know why, and I do not know how, but the salvation of a single soul in the future is the turning point for Gotham. I do not know who they are, but I do know that if you succeed, Gotham shall forever be a city of Peace”.

“I…”

_ “Trust him Jason” the voice urges. “I too have seen what he speaks of, though the lord forbids me to speak of it. These things and struggles are for you and you alone”. _

Jason is quiet for another moment but eventually he looks up into the man’s eyes. “Alright” he says. “I’m in”.

**_Presidential Mansion, Former Mayoral Mansion_ **

“Shh, shh little Harvey everything is okay baby” Ivy says, soothing the crying baby boy in her arms. “It’s okay. It was a little noisy before but now that’s over sweetie. It’s over”.

She bounces the bundle in her arms and slowly the green skinned boy begins to calm down. Eventually he gets fully bored of crying and brings his thumb up to his mouth and begins to suckle on it.

“Ahh...that’s the most adorable thing ever!”

She turns to see Harleen, Dinah and Bruce at the door, changed into their street clothes but otherwise still frazzled. “Ma’am, is it okay if I let them in?” her secret service agent asks. “Yes of course! They’re family”.

The man nods and steps aside, letting the group into the room where the first lady was. Dinah rushes over and takes her god son into her arms without any warning whatsoever, though Pamela had gotten used to the exuberant reactions of Dinah to her little boy.

Harvey giggles as Dinah lays him down on her chest, nestling his head in the crook of her shoulder and lightly patting his back. “We kicked some serious butt today Harvey Jr” she whispers to him, kissing the back of his head. “When you grow up? I’ll teach you how to kick butt too”.

“Eh, my little boy is going to be a doctor” Pamela says, nipping the idea of Harvey becoming a vigilante right in the bud.    
  
“Or president like his daddy” Harleen interjects, sitting on the couch. Bruce moves behind her and places his hands on her shoulders, gently comforting his wife. There was a constant sadness that surrounded the two, one that everyone could see.

Harleen was nowhere near as outgoing as she used to be and Bruce? Well, Bruce was sullen and quiet most times.

The green skinned woman reaches out and places her hand on Harleen’s. “I...I haven’t been there for you as much as I should’ve but…”.

“Pam you had a baby” Harleen says teary eyed already, her mind going to Barbara. Bruce senses this and she leans down to kiss her head as well, remaining close to keep touching her shoulders. “I know but...I just want you to know...I miss her too”.

The two women were crying now, and Dinah herself was trying to avoid listening in on the conversation by focusing on Harvey jr. Superman had kept them from focusing on their loss but now that they had time to breathe? Their mind was right back to it.

“My baby girl…”.

Harleen places her head in her hands, trying not to let anyone see her cry. It had been beyond hard for her, to remain strong for her daughters and the staff at Arkham, the patients. Everyone knew that she’d lost her eldest, so they gave her space. Bruce moves to the side and hugs his wife from one side while a crying Pamela takes her other.

“I lost my little girl….”.

They couldn’t say anything. All they could do was let her get it out as she so desperately needed to. Dinah continues to focus on Harvey Jr, who was curiously looking over at the group. 

“It’s okay buddy. Just...something sad happened. Let’s hope you never have to know what that feels like or understand”.

She looks out of the window and towards the wall, her own words reverberating in her mind. ‘That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing buddy’

Mental images of her children and nieces and nephews come to mind.

‘We’re doing it for you guys’.

**_Justice Society of Gotham Headquarters_ **

“Are you sure you’ll get him to talk?” Luthor asks the colonel as they move along to the basement. “Da. I am well experienced in KGB interrogation techniques” he explains. “The trick is to apply pain by degree you see. Make him realize how smart it would be to talk. However, when he answers you, you cannot stop. He might be lying, saying anything to get out of it. When he gives you the same answer three times? Then, you hear truth”.

Luthor was openly disturbed by how easily this man was speaking of torture, but he knew that there was very little choice for him in the matter. The colonel and his metahumans had effectively turned the tide of the battle at the beach and inflicted multiple casualties on the invading League forces.

Most of the big hitters had gotten away, Zatanna and Grodd mainly, but two were down for the count. Green Arrow was...well, accidentally stepped on and was thus pretty dead. Black Lightning was captured and was going to be subjected to the not so gentle ministrations of Colonel Anatoli Knayzev.

It had all around been more devastating for the League than it had been for the Justice Society.

“Well...do what you think best colonel” the bald man says. “I’d just prefer it if you kept him alive”.

“Da, I will try my best but, no promises. Even the strongest man may break under the correct application of force”.

Lex knows that that was the best he’d get from the man and knows better than to push it with the Soviet. He had a mean look about him, and indeed his entire presence made him uncomfortable. ‘Probably don’t even to put the power cancellation collar on old Jefferson’ Lex thinks, watching as the colonel opens the door to the Society’s makeshift interrogation room. “Zdravstvuyte tovarisch Pierce” he says, drawing the bound hero’s attention.

He doesn’t say anything and merely continues to glare at the man. “Tsk, tsk tsk. Rude. That is okay. I will teach you manners da?”

With that the man closes the door and Lex decides to leave him to his job. In fact, his mind was on someone else entirely at that moment. ‘Garfield’.

  
The green skinned boy hadn’t taken the news well, and was, as of that moment, still in the cafeteria, in neutered shock. He advances up the stairs and then makes a left at the connecting hallway, opening the doors to indeed see the boy’s back to the door, his head in his hands.

‘Poor kid’.

He’s about to enter when another figure preempts him, making a beeline for the table in measured steps that spoke of one of the soviets, the only characters within the city who kept such a regal bearing. Most who had tried to speak with the boy had been shooed away, which is why he was surprised when the grey skinned girl was allowed close.    
  
“You are the one they call Beast Boy da?”

Garfield remains silent and slowly the girl moves into the bench across from him. She stood ramrod straight in her seat, eyes fixed on the boy. “I am not good at comforting”.

“No shit” the boy says tiredly, his eyes red rimmed.

The girl was unaffected by his language and merely continues on. Lex was impressed with her. When he’d spoken to the boy he’d instantly been pushed away after delivering the news, the young man turning into a crocodile to hammer the point home. 

Vixen, Hawkman, Ice and even Cheetah had all tried in vain, pushed away one after the other.

“But I am good at feeling and your sadness is endemic around the whole of this building. Field manual three on the preservation of fighting ability of the defense ministry doctrine states this to be a case of demoralization. This must be at least alleviated if you are to become fighting effective again”.

  
  


Garfield looks up at her and shakes his head. “I don’t give a fuck about this fight anymore”.

“Is that what comrade Bombshell would want?”

The boy’s eyes widen and he turns away, fresh tears prickling at the sides. “Da, she is a hero. When this is all over she will be awarded many medals for her sacrifice. Hero of the Soviet Union as well in that she allowed the remnants of our army to enter Gotham”.

“Ribbons wont bring her back”.

“Neither will giving up” she says, reaching into the pack she wore at her side and retracting a bottle of vodka and placing it on the table. “In Mother Russia, we drink away our sorrows. Perhaps that might help you now”.

He looks at the bottle skeptically, not believing that a drink would help him feel better at all. Still, something about the grey skinned girl got him to believe it was in his best interests if he went along with her demand.

“I’ve never drank before”.

“That is most unusual” she goes on, apathetically retrieving two shot glasses and placing them on the table.

Garfield still looked destroyed, but at least he was interacting with someone. Lex sees this and slowly backs off, realizing that it might be best to leave the man in the care of the Russian officer. 

He had to attend to so many different things that it was nearly impossible to fixate on one thing. 

  
Still he was happy that some things handled themselves.

Raina quickly pours two shot glasses of vodka, taking one herself and pushing the other towards Beast Boy. She raises it and waits for him, while he takes a tentative sniff of the strong liquid and nearly recoils at it. “What is this stuff?”

“Ved’my varyat. Witches brew. Made in my village in Siberia”.

“Where are you from in Siberia?”

“Bakhta. A village in the Taiga. Very cold but warm too. I miss its people. Drink”

He raises his glass to hers and they clank it together. “K pobede i tovarishch bomba”.

He nods, not exactly knowing what she said but guessing that it had something to do with Amy. ‘God...what am I going to do without you Amy?’ he thinks, wincing as the harsh liquid burns its way down his throat and into his stomach.

“Ohh...this...this…”.

“It is rude to insult a Russian’s vodka my capitalist friend” Raina says lightly. “Especially when they have offered it to you”.

“Sorry...wasn’t insulting it…” he coughs, holding his chest before pounding on it. “Just very strong”.

“Ahh, then you were doing the opposite. You were complimenting. Da. I still feel your sadness. Another round” she says, filling up both glasses again. “When do we stop drinking?”

“When you learn to enjoy my witch’s brew”.

A small smile tugs at the corner of her mouth and Garfield can’t help but feel a little comforted by it nonetheless. She was right on one thing at least.

Amy was a hero.

**_Justice League Forward Base Camp_ **

Superman was livid. Beyond livid. He’d been made a fool of and Gotham had been resupplied with metahumans that would undoubtedly make his life a living hell in the future. Zatanna had limped back into camp, soaking wet and sporting a sprained ankle while Zodd?    
  
Well, the primate was a lot more bandage than fur at this point.

They’d also lost their artillery battery. The guns could be replaced of course but it would take a while for them to get here. The shells were a much greater loss. In fact, the whole area was one giant crater, unusable unless Clark used his powers to fill it in.

His powers were slowly coming back as it was, though that was a small comfort. He’d been lucky that there was a small patrol in the area that was able to pick him up following his not so graceful fall from the heavens. 

‘None of this would’ve happened if Diana was here with her army’.

He hadn’t heard from the woman for a while, and he couldn’t help but assume that things hadn’t gone well on Themyscira. “What could possibly be keeping her?”

“Sir!”

“What?” he snaps angrily on the soldier who had entered the tent to give him a report. “Sir we have more bad news”.

Clark turns and slams his fists down on the campaign table, smashing it into little splitters that scatter across the tent. “What could possibly be fucking worse than everything that’s already happened?” he seethes.

The soldier was now shaking in his boots, afraid of being the one that the man of steel takes his rage out upon. “Sir...Green Arrow was killed unfortunately. We found his body smashed into the beach”.

“How?”

“Well...we believe he was...stepped on. We have no confirming reports from any of the few survivors that came in. It seems the Russian’s were very effective at killing our men”.

He hated to lose Ollie, though it wasn’t the greatest of blows. Queen Industries was one of the major providers of weapons and arms to the forces of the League. Still, they could just seize control. Congress would pass a national emergency act if he told them to.

When he told them too.

“What else?”

“Black Lightning was captured”.

“Damn, another metahuman lost” he says, knowing that at that moment the man was most likely being interrogated fiercely. Would he crack?   
  


Clark couldn’t say, but in the long run Jefferson didn’t know much that would actually jeopardize his standing here. 

“Is that it?”

“Nothing else to report at the moment sir” the soldier says, noting that the Kyrptonian had calmed slightly. “Good. Any losses on the Gotham side of things?”

“Not anything we can confirm outside of the one they call Bombshell sir”.

“That was a beautiful explosion” he says, meanwhile his mind goes sadistically back to when he managed to use his heat beams to kill the girl, or at the very least seal her fate before he crashed to the ground. “She was the only class A metahuman inside of Gotham wasn’t she?”

“As far as we know yes sir”.

“Good. Now, for better news, has the planet of Tamaran sent their representative?”

“Yes sir”.

“Good. And what would you say? Personally speaking? Pretty?”

“Drop dead gorgeous sir”.

Superman smiles at that, deeply enjoying what was about to come for him. “Good. Have her tent cleared. I need to burn off some steam”.

The man snaps into a salute and rushes off to follow the man’s orders, happy to escape with his life, let alone uninjured.

Superman was still left with one major thought. 

‘Where the hell is Diana?’


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Non-Con Mention in this chapter.

**_Themyscira, Amazon Forward Defensive Line_ **

Adriane, the commander of the Amazonian forces, could see that their front line was cracking. The remaining Amazons held firm of course, having been ordered to do so, and they were aided by the close quarters of the fenced in dockyard, but it wouldn’t be long. Numbers would unfortunately decide this battle. 

“Commander!”

Adriane turns to her second in command, Danae, and winces at the panic in her eyes. ‘This can’t be good news’.

“What is it sister?”

The warrior woman takes a moment to catch her breath but even this slight rest was too short. “The eastern door. They’re battering it down!”

“With what?” Adriane asks, shock on her face.

“I don’t know. I couldn’t get a good enough look at them but it appears they’ve gotten into our siege works!”

This was troubling news indeed. The Amazonian commander casts her gaze out towards the raving mass of monsters that had once been her sisters at the forward gate. They were frothing at the mouth, some pieces of flesh still clenched between their teeth.

She sees a spear dart out from between the cracks in the shield wall and slams into the open mouth of one of the cannibals. She didn’t expect much of this as the corrupted amazons had suffered many such wounds before. Blood and destroyed teeth rain down though shockingly, this Amazon goes limp and falls to the ground dead. 

That got Adriane’s attention.

“Sisters! The head! Focus your attention on their heads!” she shouts while hoisting her spear and shield high and gesturing towards some of her other sisters who were in the rear, waiting to plug any gaps.    
  
“We must go and reinforce the eastern gate”.

They all raise their spears in solidarity with her commands and orders. “Awoo! Awoo! Awoo!”

Before rushing off to prevent the fall of half of their defensive line, Adriane turns to Danae and smiles. “Sister, we might yet win, but not today. We must focus on retreat for the moment”.

“Leave Themyscira to these monsters?!” she asks scandalized. “Neve…”.

“Do not be foolish!” Adriance chastises. “We stand no chance. Our numbers are few, and the ones we have weak with thirst”.

Danae is cowed but the situation still rolls uncomfortably in her stomach. “The ships have emergency provisions but where shall we go? Superman controls the world out there”.

“He is not allied with this Diana”.

The two women turn to see a man standing in the midst of their quickly constructed fort. His resplendent dark armor and his helmet give him away instantly. “Ares!” Adriane hisses, bringing up her spear beside Danae. 

“Peace Adriane. Peace. I come only to help”.

“Liar!” Danae hisses. “You’ve come to slit our throats in the midst of battle and join forces with those who corrupted our sisters!”

“Tantalus is no friend of mine, and neither is this power mad Diana who is his lover”.

Adriane was confused by the God of War’s words and didn’t quite know what to make of them. “Come now, did you truly believe that Diana just began consuming the flesh of her sisters on a whim? Her corruption has been a long time coming. In the fires of Tartarus I saw the cannibal king plotting. I heard his sweet whispers to the girl”.

“Why should we trust you?”    
  


Adriane had no time to spare for quibbling over the truth of Tantalus’ involvement, something she saw as making more sense than anything else.

“Because you have no choice General” Ares says stepping forward and moving to his knee. “I swear to thee, Adriane, commander of the last of the Amazons, that I shall pledge my service to you, and by strength of my arms commit to your defense. I give you my word as a god…”.

“Which can’t be broken” Danae contributes.

That settled it, and she knew that she really didn’t have a choice in the matter. “Rise Ares, but know this, if I smell treachery I shall run you through with my spear myself”.

The man nods, nonplussed. “You will fine that my fire for treachery and deceit has been dwarfed and snuffed by Tartarus”.

  
Adriane steps forward and offers him her hand up. “Let us hope that your appetite for war has not been quenched”. In an act of submission he takes it and lifts himself up, moving beside the woman and her still wary second in command. A gleam could be detected in his eye as they move towards the gate. “I suppose I have one more war within me”.

The general says nothing as she approaches the rear lines holding against the heavy wooden gate which was slowly moving inward with every impact that the Amazons on the other side brought down upon it.

“Adriane...it’s going to cave in” one of the fully armored rear guard’s says fearfully. “Adriane, may I offer a suggestion?”

She was loathe to take the man’s words at face value, or even let them be spoken and it was clear that the Amazons who were not too fearful of what was waiting for them on the other side of the gate to take notice of the man were also wary. Still...he was the god of war.

“Speak Ares”.

“I would suggest you send the rear guard away to prepare the two trireme’s we’ll need. Have them bring their bows and arrows to cover the escape of those of us holding the line from the ships, buying us some time and alleviating the pressure on the retreating phalanx”.

She had to admit….it was good advice. “And what of this gate?” she asks petulantly. “It’ll be severely weakened by the lack of warriors”.

“I shall defend it”.

“By yourself?” she asks scandalized. Ares couldn’t help but smile to himself, feeling that he had to be honest while also knowing that he ran the risk of offending the general. “Adriane, corrupted or not, I am most likely the only one with experience in slaughtering Amazons”.

  
The general was most assuredly not happy with the god’s statement, but she couldn’t deny it’s truth. “Make sure you do not die Ares” she snaps. “Your power will be transferred to them if they consume you and that is the last thing we need”.

The man just brings his sword forward, picking up a discarded shield off of the ground. “Form some of your sisters behind me, just in case. Just enough to hold them so we may get to the ships”.

“Amazons! Fall back!”

“What?” one of them calls out. “Adriane that’s madness!”

“Why die needlessly when Ares is all too willing to do it for us?” she smirks, getting back at the god for his comments. Ares didn’t mind at all, so focused was he on the impending battle that the world could be ending right around him and he wouldn’t even lift his head. A smile graced his lips and he brings his sword up.

The Amazons retreat around him to the rear, casting baleful looks his way. None of which he notices. He just watches as the wood caves in more and more, the large plank that was designed to hold the doors shut splintering and breaking with each blow.

“Ohh Diana...I hope you have decided to lead your warriors in person”.

He raises his sword even high, ecstatic at the thought of what the Amazons on the other side might think upon seeing him standing there. He finally gets his chance to see it head on as the gate bursts open and the mass of clawing women intent upon eating the flesh of their sisters barrels in.

This was not the well trained cadre of warrior women that they once were, but instead was simply a gaggle of humanity, crushing in on each other and even going as far as to injure themselves in the rush forward. He even saw some of them bite down on the nearest piece of flesh, regardless of who it belonged to.

‘Ohh yes, this will be fun’.

Their eyes settle on him and unfortunately their first thoughts stalled them as they were too busy thinking about the meat they could pick from underneath his armor in place of who he was. When his identity finally comes to them, they stop midway.

A fatal error.

Ares steps forward and cleaves the head from the first Amazon that comes at him as easily as one would pluck a flower from its stem. They claw forward, hoping to work their advantage of numbers upon him, but instead they only fueled his fire.

  
He steps forward and brings his shield down upon the mass, breaking the neck of one Amazon and sending a few more flying back. Still they came, a veritable human wave that the near limitless God could only push back with constant swings of his sword. 

Some took off heads, while others removes arms. 

It was enough….for now.

“Fall back Amazons but do not break your Phalanx!” Adriane shouts, having already sent her reinforcements to ready the triremes. She herself couldn’t fight the fact that she was impressed. She’d only seen the god personally in battle once before, and even then she was more focused on fighting his soldiers to notice him.

‘He truly makes it an art form’ she thinks, forgetting that she was watching him kill Amazons with ease. Her sisters fall back, slowly, their feet skitting over the sands as the others continue forward, sensing the backwards momentum of the defenders.

Spears and swords were thrust through the gaps with more frequency and bodies lined the ground as the cannibals moved forward. They didn’t remain there for long as their sisters behind them rushed forward to consume the corpses, eating with starved dogs and throwing bones and other discarded viscera into the air.

She was disgusted by this sight and instead prompts her eyes back to Ares. More bodies had piled up before him, and even the seemingly fearless women that had only grown bold in their desire for human flesh seemed to balk at the slaughter before them.

“Not so easy without your Queen here huh?”

“Hippolyta is dead!” one whom Adriane recognizes as her former lover Amara cries out. “Long live Diana!”

Adriane gestures with her hand for her sisters to the rear to board the triremes and pick up their bows, an order which is followed with expert precision that was to expected of them. “Now sisters! Let loose!” 

They do, and a horde of arrows falls upon the maddened mass, causing howls of pain to echo across the battlefield. Some arrows even found their mark and managed to penetrate into their brains through their eye sockets. This bought valuable time as yet another feeding frenzy occurred.    
  
This was their chance. 

“Ares! Fall back to the trireme!” 

The god of war looks over his shoulder and nods, beginning to trek back while turning upon the maddened but still frightened horde. One is able to overcome their fear and quickly leaps for his back, the choice meat of an Olympian being a desire commodity due to the power it would grant those who ate of him. 

With ease he reaches around and grabs the woman, throwing her to the sand before him, allowing the force of such an impact to knock the wind out of her. Without waiting for her to recover, Ares raises his sandal clad heel and brings it down upon her head with frightful force, squashing it like a ripe fruit.

Danae winced openly, and so did many of the others who were sickened but indeed in awe of the gods fighting prowess. The same could not be said of the cannibals who cry out in consternation and anger. Ares continues his march to the ship, acting as if he had not a single care in the world.

“First line fall back to the dock! Eastern guard, to the side!”

They were trying to cover each other’s escape, wanting to avoid the mad dash that many ultimately wanted to give into. Ares, or rather, the fear the cannibals held of Ares, was keeping the eastern flank secure for the moment as the Amazons slowly move forward and once again stop to pick at the stomped remains of their comrade in arms.

The archers keep going, and Danae was beginning to get nervous. “We should pull both flanks onto the ships” she whispers, gesturing at the triremes docked on opposite sides of the pier. “Steady” Adriane says. “We must be slow. Ares is…”.

“Leave him!”

The general turns and glares at the woman, whose fear had seemed to unbalance her. “I will do no such Danae. He swore and oath and thus I am also sworn to him”. The front line had boarded the ship to the right of the dock and joined their bows to their sisters, wreaking even more havoc. Ares was now merely a few paces away and his presence cowed both of the groups of attackers as he remade his example, smashing the hilt of his sword into a snarling face.

“You may call the rest of your warriors back Adriane” he says with dulcet tones, reminding the woman of how the god of war had been able to seduce Aphrodite. “I shall hold them here”.

Their assault stopped at the base of the dock, fearful of going any further, especially with how many they’d lost. “WE WILL FLAY THE FLESH FROM ALL OF YOU!”.

Adriane walks up beside Ares, her heart heavy. “By the gods...we’ve truly lost them all”.

She feels an unexpected pressure on her shoulder as the god of war grasps her and throws her over his shoulder. “We must move general!”.

Adriane was aghast at the action and seethes while slamming her fists against his back. “Put me down! I demand it! I demand it!”

The spell he had over the followers of Tantalus is broken, and they rush forward, buoyed by something they felt at their rear. A monster emerges, showing himself and opening his bloody maw to tease them with his bloodied teeth. Beside him was an equally large woman, whom Adriane could only determine her identity through the few remaining facial features. 

“My gods….Diana?”

Ares jumps across the dock to the trireme, slicing the rope that held the sails bound while their sister ship does the same. “We must go! Now!” he shouts, just as the horde reaches the docks. He deposits Adriane roughy onto the deck of the ship and turns just in time to slice a foolhardy Amazon who had jumped across the gap onto the ship, in half. Without a word he picks up the still writhing upper half of the body and throws it back across to the others who were apolectic about their remaining sisters escaping. 

He reaches up to remove his helmet, breathing a sigh of relief as the cool and yet also warm sea air batters against his skin.

Adriane was not as appreciative of that fact that they were safe as he might have hoped.

As soon as she gets to her feet, she slaps him, harshly across the face, an act that the man might never have allowed before. The woman glares at him, removing her own helmet and releasing her long golden hair from its confinement. 

“If you ever touch me in such a manner again I will slaughter you a thousand ways to Hades myself! Am I clear?!”

He couldn’t help but blush, feeling a little slighted as it were. He had effectively saved her life and now here he was being shouted at. Still...she was rather beautiful. “Yes general. I apologize”.

Danae found herself grinning in self satisfied joy at the general dressing the god down so effectively, and so indeed were some of the others who focused on the horizon before them. “Good…” Adriane calms, turning away and looking back towards the now burning and abandoned Themyscira. ‘Any survivors there...well...they shall not be survivors for long’.

She wanted to cry and indeed a teardrop leaks from out of the corner of her eye. “Our home...destroyed” she says to herself.

“Once upon a time such a sight would make me feel a joy unparalleled to anything else in the world”.

Ares had stepped up beside her and was indeed looking out at the island. This angered the woman and she turns to him with an accusing look. “And what does it make you feel now war monger?”

The man surprises her by looking down. “Sorrow”.

She could sense that he wasn’t lying though she doesn’t understand why he would feel such a way at seeing his most hated enemies turn on one another. ‘Perhaps his time in Tartarus changed him?’ She didn’t have time for such questions, as indeed only one possible question could be important to her at this time.

“Where do we go now?”

“The flames of war have been snuffed out all over the globe” he says. “I can feel it. That only means that someone has managed to bring humanity to heel”.

“Superman” Danae says, not wanting to be left out of this impromptu war council. “Who?”

“A friend of Diana’s though I wonder now if Tantalus is her true ally?” Adriane asks. “Most likely. Tantalus craves violence as it is the only way he can meet his desire for flesh. In a world without violence as such as this Superman seems to be creating? He could find no succor”.

“Is there really no hope?”

“No” Ares says. “There is one place where the embers of war grow brightly, and resistance continues. So much blood has been spilled already there but there is where we will find our hope”.

“Where is this place where hope still burns?” Danae asks mockingly.

Ares didn’t seem to detect her tone, or if he did he chose to not respond to it. “A place called Gotham City in the United States. We will find many warriors there willing to fight for justice”.

“And why are you so dedicated to the cause of justice all of the sudden?” Danae asks.

“Let us just say that I care not for the bounds of my creation and will seek to play by the rules of the gods who formed me no longer” Ares states simply. “I do not wish to make war any longer. I wish to find something to create, or some great love that will echo through the ages. Saving you Amazons? It just seemed a fair place to start”.

“You did not save u…” Danae begins before being cut off by her general.

“No Danae, he did. Let us always strive to be truthful and reward a kindness for kindness”.

  
“But…”.

“Did our Queen Hipolyta not stand for peace? For second chances? If we are to leave those ideals upon the burning remains of Themyscira then I fail to see the point of us even escaping from the island. Her ideals must be brought with us Danae” she says, reaching out to place a hand on the woman’s shoulder.

She is rebuffed, and left alone as Danae storms back to the middle of the ship’s deck to work on directing those who were rowing. Adriane says and shakes her head. “Give her time”.

“I know”.

Ares hums to himself curiously. “Are you not the new queen of the Amazons?”

“No. Diana is...though she is corrupted. Still, the duty of new succession falls to Hera to decide and she has been...silent as of late”.

“Hmm yes. My mother can be that way at times”.

“I forgot that you were son” Adriane says, shocked at herself for making idle conversation with the man. “Yes though she is loathe to admit it”.

“I can see why”.

He turns and regards her with a curious eye which somehow makes her balk. “I apologize, that was cruel…”.

“Perhaps. And perhaps it was true” he says. “She hated me for what I was fated to become. Even as I was being plucked from her womb. Can I blame her for hating me for what I would become when she herself was fated to hate me in order to make me become what I did?”.

Adriane smiles to herself. “A true ponderance for Athena”.

“Yes. I will one day ask my sister. She and I are on better terms” he says before raising his hand and turning back to the director of the rowers. “To the west. Gotham is that way!” he shouts. 

Adriane keeps quiet, not minding the fact that he was seemingly leading the Amazons in this moment. She needed a break anyway, and as she knew they would at least follow his directions when it came to coordinates, she steps back to do so.

‘Themyscira….’.

It was a word that would haunt them all for the rest of their immortal lives.

**_Personal Quarters of Superman_ **

He pulls up his pants and secures them to his body, eager to be dressed and returned to his command tent. This distraction, while pleasurable, was merely a distraction whose aim was higher than that of mere pleasure.

“Grodd…” he calls through the flap of the tent. 

“Have Komand’r cleaned up and fed” he says. “Otherwise this will have all been a waist. Keep her healthy”. With that he slips back into his shirt and exits the tent, leaving his underling the task of cleaning up the mess.

The gorilla walks in and quickly sets about studying the Tamaranean who was naked and bound to the bed. It had been the same procedure day in and day out since the Tamaranean “ambassador” had arrived. At least, that is what she had thought.

The orange skinned and dark haired girl was sweaty from perspiration and dried tears, even Grodd’s mind control not successful in keeping her fully incapacitated. He even had a struggle in getting her into a more agreeable mood for a few moments.

He grunts as he picks up the blanket and tosses it over the girl, leaving only her power inhibitor collar and tied off arm exposed. “I will fetch you food” he says gruffly, not caring to spend much more time than he had to around the woman.

It had started months back in reality, when Superman, like any far seeing king, began to think of the future of his reign. He wouldn’t be around forever and in order to ensure that the Earth remained under his and his descendents dominion, he first had to make said heir. Originally he canvased the Earth, searching for worthy metahumans who would be worthy of reproducing with him. 

Humans were out of the question of course as Clark believed they would weaken, not strengthen his gene pool.

When it was found that not suitable matches could be found, as many were willing, he cast his gaze outward and sent emissaries across the stars. Upon reaching Apokolips, it was enquired of Darkseid, another tyrant, if one of his furies could be spared. The man was forthcoming in that the offspring of his furies would remain loyal to him, a price to be paid for the endless pleasure Clark would receive.

This was not something that Superman would agree to as he had to have complete control of his child. The search became more and more fruitless and even depressing as the man was reminded of how alone he was for his kind. 

That is...until they came across Tamaran.

Tamaran, a planet dominated by a warlike species that was at constant odds with Thanagar, Rann or the Gordanian slavers at any one time or another. They had natural abilities and after a few scientific tests were conducted it was found that they could indeed reproduce with a Kyrptonian. 

He reached out to the newly crowned Queen Koriand’r, hoping to possibly secure her hand in marriage. However, the Queen was not interested, though she did want an alliance. A deal was struck in which both would benefit.    
  
Superman would get a prize breeding mare, though he didn’t know that she was considered “subhuman” for her rare coloration for her planet, and Koriand’r would remove a threat to her legitimacy and throne.

It was a perfect solution!

The issue was that Kommand’r would never agree to it. Not if it was put before her brazenly. Instead? She would be told to be the Tamaranean ambassador to Earth, a much lusted after position. At the time Kommand’r hadn’t thought anything of the arrangement other than that maybe she could mend bridges with her sister, the younger sister who’d been so cruel to her over the years.

When she got to Earth all she remembered was Grodd greeting her...and her mind falling into a fog. The next thing she knew she was tied to a bed, unable to use her powers as Superman thrusted into her. She wanted to scream, cry out, but she couldn’t.

Even now her life was one of imprisonment and a doctor had confirmed that she was pregnant, ultimately accomplishing Superman’s goal. 

That didn’t matter to her at the moment. All that mattered was getting out of her confinement. Now? It was her only chance. 

She reaches for the blanket with her free hand and pulls it upwards, pretending that she was trying to cover her modesty in case anyone were to come in. ‘How could you do this to me you bitch?!’ she screeches mentally, wishing to tear her sister limb from limb. That would wait. 

For now? She had to escape and survive.

She begins to pull a loose string from the blanket, using her teeth and quickly slicing it off when it was long enough. ‘Power cancellation power first’ she says to herself, slipping the string through the crack. She uses her fingers to pull the string taught as she gropes it along for the locking mechanism. She prayed to X’hal that it would work. She needed it to. 

The beeping and subsequent click proves to her that her plan wasn’t all folly as the power inhibitor falls from her. She sits up in bed and rips the handcuffs off of her opposite hand, ecstatic to have her strength back. Even now her happiness at that simple fact alone allows her to levitate into the air, her powers of flight being based upon joy. 

She had to act quickly. Grodd was most certainly going to return. The real question was where would she go? The answer was obvious. Gotham. Anyone who was an enemy to Superman was an enemy to her. ‘I hope this causes a war between you and Superman sister’ she thinks vindictively. ‘I hope you choke on the blood of Tamaran’.

She rushes to the side of the tent, looking for anything that might cover her more fully. Her eyes land upon a robe, ragged and dirty as it was from being thrown to the floor but still it was better than nothing. She reaches down and picks it up, tying the sash about her waist.

Just as she finishes with that, she hears a rustling of the tent flaps from behind her and Gorilla Grodd walks in with a tray of food. He stops at seeing her free and about, though his hesitation is not mirrored at all by the enraged Tamaranean.

She flies forward, her eyes and hands ablaze with the same green energy. Grodd doesn’t have time to use his telepathic abilities as the woman uses her frightful strength to pick him up and slam both of them through the top of the tent. Soldiers look on in awe as the woman moves into the sky, and Grodd begins to panic.

“YOU HELPED HIM RAPE ME!”

She had gained her ability to speak english through the few times that Superman had kissed her. She still remembers the horrible feeling of him upon her lips, squirming to get away even with her powers and mind blocked.    
  
Without a second thought she drops the primate from the staggering height that she had reached and looks out towards the fortress city that had apparently given the man who’d practically enslaved her so much stress.

She knew he’d be there soon to fight her, and possibly even recapture her, especially now that she was carrying his child. She needed to move, now! She was still too weak to even face someone like him.

She rushes off towards the city, praying once more that he wouldn’t catch her and that she wouldn’t be shot on sight. ‘Please! Please help me!’ 

**_Gotham City Forward Defensive Wall_ **

“Mr. Luthor something is coming towards us and fast! Very fast!” the soldier shouts, drawing the attention of the man who had been on one of his random patrols. “Superman? He wouldn’t be crazy enough to….”.

“What’s going on?” Vixen asks, rushing up with John in tow.

“Someone’s coming at the wall...but it’s definitely not Superman” Lex says, watching the woman through the binoculars. His eyes suddenly widen as another shape comes into view behind her. “But whoever she is he’s after her and he’s trying to catch her before she gets here”.

“Dammit...what do we do?” Vixen asks. “If she’s running from Superman she’s obviously not on his side”.

“I got it”.

The voice came from an unlikely saviour as Floyd Lawton steps up onto the platform and brings forward his rifle. “Floyd what the hell are you doing?” Cheetah asks, an equally inquisitive Killer Frost alongside her.

“Shut up for a second and let me aim”.

“LAWTON!” Luthor shouts. “We’re not killing her! We don’t even know…”.

“I ain’t aiming for her, relax” he says before squeezing the trigger and letting a round rip through the air. It rushes past the girl and right into Superman’s face, providing nothing more than a nuisance as the dented metal bounces off of the Man of Steel’s face and falls to the ground. 

A nuisance however was enough to stop the man and allow the dark haired girl precious time to get into range of the city’s defensive weapons.

Deadshot lowers his rifle and watches as Superman raises himself up, thinking about going after the girl again until he realizes that she was well within the “danger zone” as it had been dubbed by the man’s forces.

The girl gets closer and closer until she is floating a few feet in the air above the group. Neither speak and the Justice Society’s members start to question if this was a trap of some sort. 

“Who are you?” Luthor asks gruffly, which the girl doesn’t respond to. Vixen steps forward, sensing that something was wrong by the way the girl shakes. Slowly she falls onto the platform, on her knees before them. She begins to sob, rubbing her hands up and down her shoulders in a mimicry of self comfort. 

Vixen instantly drops to her knees and gathers the young woman into her arms, hugging her tightly. “Shh...shh...sweetie...it’s okay, you’re safe. Whoever you are, whatever happened, you’re safe”. 

John himself leans down and presses his hand to the woman’s forehead, whispering “‘alam dafia”. The bright purple eyes of the sobbing girl slowly close, and her tears stop, reduced to nothing but slight intakes of breath that come in abruptly.    
  
He turns to Vixen and smiles. “An arabic sleeping aid. Usually used on children. I learned it with the bedouins”. He slowly takes the girl in his arms and cradles her close. “I’ll take her to the medical bay. Have our doctors check her out”.

“I’ll come with you” Vixen says, finding that she appreciated the man more and more for how handy he came in at all times. Luthor just nods, looking curiously at the woman in the excorcist’s arms. ‘Hmm...I don’t know who she is or even what planet she’s from’ he ponders to himself. 

He looks back at Superman who remained hovering there, watching him with angry and hateful eyes though it was clear he’d not risk coming any closer. ‘Good’ Lex thinks. ‘I hope you enjoyed feeling utterly human for a little while Clark’.

His mind drifts back to the girl and he can’t help but ponder what she was to the man to make her so important as to risk getting hit by the transmitter again. Whatever it was? It didn’t matter. She needed help and when she was feeling up to it she’d be able to explain what happened.

“Whatever your plans were for this girl” he shouts out, knowing that Superman could still hear it despite the great distances between the two. “They’re over. She’s under our protection now”.

Superman lingers a few more seconds but he knew when he was beaten though that was a feeling he didn’t like that he was getting accustomed too. ‘Dammit’ the man of steel thinks to himself, enraged that one of his only chances to secure his bloodline seemed to have gone out the window. ‘Dammit, dammit, dammit!’.

Back on the wall, Lawton was looking over his rifle while Louise and Barbara were both separately looking over Lawton. “Wow, that was a hell of a shot Floyd” Barbara says, moving forward to press her chest into the suddenly aware man. Louise glares at the genetically spliced woman before smiling and moving into the man’s side. “Yeah. I wonder what else a man with your...accuracy could do”.

“Umm...well…”.

“How about you and me go and get something to eat Floyd?” Barbara says, purring loudly. “I think some nice time cuddling away from all of this might be nice”.

“Right, sure. He really needs a saucer of milk from the half cat whore”. 

Cheetah backs up for a second and hisses at the ice powered supervillain, her hands splayed out to showcase her claws. “And you think that an ice queen is going to heat his fire?”

“Better me than a kitten”.

“Ladies, ladies...please...stop. More than enough of me to go around” the former mercenary says jokingly before realizing that they might have taken that seriously. Indeed the two women did, and both were reflecting on what he said. 

“Hmm...well, maybe I can share a bit. After all he does seem like a guy who can go the distance” Louise says with a teasing smile, moving in once more to the man’s side, pressing her chest which was so magnificently showed off by the skimpy unitard she wore, into his arm.

“Some cheetahs are known to have a few mates in the wild” Barbara says possessively, also moving in towards the man. “I’m up for seeing how much it takes to break Floyd here”.

“Ladies I was really just joking…”.

“We aren’t” Louise says, a little excited by the prospect of a menage a’ trois. “Let’s go lover boy” Barbara says, making to pull the man forward to a private area within the Justice Society’s headquarters. The man looks to Luthor for assistance but finds none as he was much too preoccupied with scanning the battlefield.

Soon he is dragged off, and nobody would see the three for hours on end.

**_Wayne Manor_ **

“Nana?”

“Yes sweetie?” Elise asks her granddaughter as she sits behind her, brushing through the girl’s hair. “Did Barbara...did Barbara kill herself?”

The question shoots through the old woman with the force of a thousand bolts. In a way? She did. Her vengeance led her down a dark path that only hurt her and those who loved her. It didn’t matter if that was the truth, the six year old girl would never understand it.

“No Martha. No she didn’t”.

“Then...who...who killed her?”

Elise puts down the brush as the girl begins to cry and gathers her into her arms. “Sweetie...sometimes, sometimes things happen and we lose people we care about but that doesn’t mean that they’re gone”.

“Then...then why isn’t she here?”

She holds her closer and tries to think of something, anything to say that will soothe her. “She is sweetie, right here…”. Elise reaches down and points into the little girl’s chest, making the point that Barbara was in her heart. “And she’ll always be right there. Big sisters don’t go away”.

The little girl goes quiet and rests her head on her grandmother’s chest, trying to soothe herself with the warmth of the woman. “I wanna be a hero one day. Like her” she says.

“Ohh sweetie, heroes come in so many shapes and sizes and…”.

“No” the little girl says firmly, her tears drying slightly. “I’m going to be a hero. A real one. I’ll save the world and people will be happy to see me, and...and...they’ll have hope!” she says fiercely. “And when they ask me why I do it, I’ll tell them because of my big sister”.

Elise couldn’t find it in her to contradict the girl and crush her dreams, especially when they came about as a way to remain close to her sister. Instead she just rubs her cheeks and the side of her head, smiling softly. “Ohh little Martha Wayne. So much like your daddy and mommy. You’re gonna change the world sweetpea”. She leans in and presses her lips to the girl’s forehead.    
  


“And Barbara will be so proud of you. She’ll be looking down at you and smiling and telling all the other angels that that’s her sister down there”.

“You think so?”

Elise picks the little girl up and moves her towards the bed, tucking her in after undoing the blankets only to replace them over the girl. “I know it sweetie. But only if you get some sleep okay?”

“Can I have Mr. Huffy?”

She gestures towards the shelf where Barbara’s old stuffed bear, the one she gave to Martha years ago sat. “Of course sweetie”. She reaches up and grabs it, putting it into the little girl’s arms, knowing that she was comforted by being so close to a remnant of the older girl.

Elise looks over at Mary and smiles again, moving over to her bed to press a kiss against her cheek, not wishing to wake her. Mary was always the first to fall out, and she rarely needed anyone to put her to bed. 

“Goodnight Nana”.

“Goodnight Martha” Elise whispers back, kissing the girl’s forehead as well before exiting the room altogether. She’d repeat the action on the Sage children as well, being an honorary Nana to them all. Then she’d check on Jason.

‘Ohh Jason...sweetie…’.

She worried the most for him because of how he seemed to have shut himself off from the world. If he wasn’t at school he was out. When he was home he remained cooped up in his room, not speaking to anyone.    
  


Something was happening with the boy and she knew that it wasn’t going to be fixed any time soon.

Maybe it never would.

**_Zatanna Zatara’s Tent_ **

She was glad for this private time alone. Especially after all day being screamed at for the failures of a man she was definitely not responsible for.

‘Superman’ she thinks. ‘A whining prima donna’.

She tries to push these thoughts away while retracting the book from under her cot. It had taken years to find this specific tome, but luckily, upon one of her team’s excursions into Russia, she finally found it. 

‘Please let this work’.

She opens the book and slams it onto the floor, reaching behind her to pull out a jar of salt mixed with the blood of a virgin, something getting increasingly hard to find these days, and nightshade.

She casts the mixture out over the book and watches as it begins to hiss and sizzle, setting the book alight. Any other book would’ve ignited and burnt to a crisp, but not this one. No, this one was special. In fact?

It was going to prove her salvation.

She raises her hands over it and begins to whisper the phrase that would activate the magic contained within the tome.

“Nepo a htap ot enummoc htiw eht tsom luof” she hisses out, ripping open her mask to expose her fanged mouth and then reaching upwards to pluck a lock of her raven dark hair from her head. She adds it to the flaming pyre that is the book and watches as a mini portal opens above the book.

“Who dares disturb me?”

“I, Zatanna Zatara”.

“Hmm” the voice moan through. “I know of you little witch. Your foul deeds, your raw lust for power and knowledge. It is so delicious and your name is legendary here in my circle”.

She was greatly impressed by that of course, though she fought not to let it show in her voice. “Thank you my infernal lord. I must come to ask of you…”.

“You wish to be freed from your curse” the voice chuckles mirthlessly. “For me to wipe away the debts owed by you to another? How so?”

“By making me your wife” she says. “Your infernal concubine. Anything!”

She hated that her pleading could still be heard in her voice, but in the end a demon truly enjoyed full supplication. “Ahh, and what do I gain from making you of me?”

“You shall partake of your flesh anytime you wish my lord”.

She feels a warm breeze blow through the tent and it seems to caress her body, instantly warming her. “I can do that whenever I want my dear” he teases. “All it would take is a mere touch and you will bow before me. Such a pliant little thing you’d be”.

“All the better for you to have me lord” she soothes, trying to fight her lust while at the same time desiring to give into it fully. ‘Not until you have his assurance!’ she reminds herself.

“What else?”

“My arcane knowled…”.

“Don’t patronize me woman!” the voice shouts, shaking the portal and making Zatanna tremble in fear. “Anything you know I have practically invented. Surely if you wish for me to go to war with another of the nine realms for your soul you will offer me something of true value. Something that will justify your place by my side as my familiar”.

She knew that this would come and indeed she’d prepared for it. With a heavy sigh she smiles and licks her lips out over the teeth that she desperately hated as a mark of her enslavement. “I can offer you your daughter Lord Trigon”.


	24. Chapter 24

**_Wayne Manor_ **

It had been a hard patrol that night, though it wasn’t because it was any different from the multitude of other times she’d been out on patrol. No. It was just different now. She wanted to cry again, but she couldn’t. Not now.

She kept falling apart and it was hurting her family. She needed to be strong for those that still needed her. ‘You have Martha and Mary, Bruce and Jason. Especially Bruce. Bruce needs you the most’. She punches her fist against the tile of the shower wall, trying to relax. The warm water helped though, especially as it cascaded down her back. She raises her head a bit to look up at the showerhead, letting the water soak through her long blonde tresses and run down her face.

“I’ll always love you Barbara” she says, speaking to her daughter though she wasn’t there. “And this pain will never go away. You were a good soldier”. She knows that word was the closest she’d ever get to describing what her and Jason were, maybe what they all were. Soldiers in the neverending war on crime. “But the war goes on sweetie”.

She hears the door to the bathroom open and can only guess at who it would be. She had a clue as there were so many other bathrooms in the manor that not many other than her husband would select the one she was in. She sees his shadow through the shower curtain and can judge that it was indeed her husband. 

“Puddin’?”

They had leaned on each other very much since the death of Barbara, while also walking on egg shells. It was a strange and scary place to be for the both of them and neither knew what they had to do to break this deadlock.

“It’s me Harleen”.

She smiled to herself and opens the curtain, letting him get a view of her naked and wet body. He was only wearing sweatpants, apparently at a loss of what to do as well. “Drop those pants and get in here”. She wanted him close, but she couldn’t muster the flirtatious and airy seduction she would use in the past. Not right now. But she did need him.

The man complies and drops his pants, stepping into the shower behind the woman though he maintains a bit of distance. His hands go to her waist and slowly rubs the flesh there, moving the soap and sudsy water over her flesh. She pressed her rear end to his groin and gently presses herself against him while reaching down with her hand to grasp his own, bringing it to her breast. “Do you remember our first time?”

He nods, gently groping her breast and lovingly moving his digits over her pink and erect nipple. “I do. It was after we lost Dick Grayson”.

She closes her eyes, having relived that memory far too many times already. She slightly turns her head to look up at him, idly kissing his chin and neck. “I needed to feel you that day. To know that I still had you and that I could recover from this”.

  
She turns in his arms and presses his back to the cold tile wall. He was more than accommodating and he keeps an arm around her waist. “I needed you too”.

“Do you still need me?”

“Of course I do” Bruce says, taking the woman’s chin in his hand and lifting her head to speak to him via his grip. He wanted to look into her eyes while he spoke. “I’ll always need you Harley”.

She sniffles, a tear coming down her cheek and causing Bruce to tear up as well. “We’ve all been through hell haven’t we?”

“We have”.

“I’m still your partner right? In all things?”

“Always”.

She smiles wide and presses herself even closer to the man while reaching down between them to grasp his manhood. He sighs in pleasure as she begins to stroke him. “Please...make me feel needed right now puddin”.

Without a word he picks her up and holds onto her rear end, groping the orbs of her ass cheeks ferociously. Her legs wrap around his hips, wanting to further anchor herself to the man though she knew he wouldn’t let her fall.

Her lips instantly go to his and she was latching on as if it was the last time they’d ever be together in such a way. Bruce was just as animalistic in his desire for his woman, and she can feel the head of his manhood pressing, probing at her entrance. She mewed submissively, wanting to feel him within her, something that proved she was still alive and not living in the ghostly dreamworld she sometimes felt like she was walking through. 

He slips his rigid member into her, and she gasps at how it always seems to stretch her open, exposing her innermost womanly workings to the man. “I love you”. It was whispered against his lips, and he seems to drink it in, the water running over their bodies and carrying away the dirt and sweat. “I love you to Harleen” he whispers back while moving into her shoulder to kiss the skin there.

He grunts as Harleen’s walls tighten about him and the woman herself throws her head back in pleasure. Their sadness and sorrow had kept them apart for a while, much longer than they were used to. The sadness was still there, and it always would be, but neither would deny that each of them felt it abate, if only a little.

She leans in closer, forcing his head into her neck while she helps him by gently moving herself up and down. She moans and coos into his ear. “That feels so good puddin” she moans, feeling that her orgasm was close at hand. This position was her weakness as she just could never wrap her mind around the fact that Bruce was able to hold her like this. 

“Harleen…”.

His voice sends pleasurable goosebumps up and down her skin. “Yes puddin”.

“I’m close”. 

She leans back and forces him to look up, a slight smile tugging the corners of her lips while indeed her whole face was transfixed in pleasure. “Me too”.

Those words were enough to send both of them over the edge as Bruce manages to thrust into her deeply at that exact moment, his head teasing against the deeper parts of her love tunnel. She throws her head back and bites her lips to muffle the screams that desperately wish to escape, though the feeling of her tightening walls around him was proof enough to the man who was trying to contain his own sounds of pleasure.

He was trying to pull back out of the woman but he found it impossible with her tightening grip upon him. He gets half way and then presses himself back in, triggering the climax that he so desperately needed to release.

His warm seed and essence fills his wife just at the moment she fully goes limp, relying on the man’s near endless reserves of strength to keep her securely up. She loves this feeling, that speaks of complete oneness. 

It takes them a few seconds to recover but soon enough they come back down from the high. Harley makes to get down but Bruce doesn’t let her, and instead he keeps his grip on her. “Puddin..”.

“I know” he intercepts. “There’s a war going on out there. A family that needs us. But right now...just...a few more minutes”.

  
She nods, knowing exactly what he was talking about. Indeed she needed it to. She stays right there in his arms, taking the sudsed up washcloth and running it over his back while leaning up to kiss his forehead.    
  
“We can keep moving forward puddin. We still need to fight. We have too much still to give up now.

“We will”.

“I know” she responds. “We’re Waynes aren’t we?”

**_The Ruins of Themyscira_ **

Tantalus felt reborn, rejuvenated even. He’d never felt this strong if he was being honest. His muscle mass was returned to him, and his flesh was vibrant in color, no longer pale and devoid. He had fashioned his armor quickly enough and wore it proudly.

‘King of the Amazons’ he thinks, fondling the skull of Hippolyta in his hands while staring out over the seas and beaches that once protected her domain from man’s world. Now? They were merely the front lines. 

Front lines he wished to push outwards over the world. “I suppose king of Sipylus won’t do for you any longer?”

He turns to see Diana, wearing only a bloodied white stola though she herself looked even more beautiful for all the flesh she’d consumed. He opens his arms and the woman runs into them, throwing her own about him. “No, it wont. I have a queen to give an empire too. Now...we have to think of where we should start”.

He keeps his arm around her waist and mulls over the thought in his mind, unable to settle on anything definite at the moment. Olympus was out of the question. His army would need to consume the souls of many powerful people to even think of such an assault. 

“Hmm…Superman”.

“What about him my love?”

He turns and smiles down at Diana. “Superman. If we consumed his flesh we would be invincible in battle. Not even your fool of a father would be able to stand against us” he explains. This was indeed a joyous thought to the once proud Amazonian princess but it was clear to her from watching the man of steel that such a feat would be impossible at the moment. 

“But...he is invulnerable my love”.

“Yes that is quite the ponderance” the man thinks. “We could consume much of his army though. Are there those in his ranks that you feel could serve us through their flesh?”.

Diana has to think of this question and indeed could only come to the conclusion that yes, it was feasible. “One does enjoy a meal in courses my lord, leaving the most succulent and filling for the middle portion”.

He reaches out to stroke her cheek. “And Superman would be our main course. Tell me of the others”.

“Well, his weakness to magic is a well hidden secret” Diana says, licking her lips while looking up at the man who would be her husband. “He has assembled many of his own magical users to prevent being overwhelmed by them”.

“Ahh, keep your friends close but your enemies closer. This Superman, as blunt as you make him seem, might be a stronger tactician than originally thought” he says angrily. “It will take a bit of guile to overwhelm him. First my love, you must return to his side”.

  
Diana was scandalized by the thought of leaving the man, and she reaches up, both of her hands on either side of his face as she voices her protest. “No Tantalus. He lusts for me. I have always sensed it, and I will have no man’s eyes upon me but your own”.

He reaches out and seizes her wrists, pulling her hands gently away before seeing a bit of blood from one of her meals lingering about her palm. He leans in and extends his serpentlike tongue to lick it off, and thus sustaining him, while also pleasuring the woman who coos at his touch. “You must my dear”.

“If we are to gain his trust, you will have to return and tell him that your attempts at raising an army on his behalf have led you to be expelled from Themyscira by your mother”. He raises the skull of said mother and smiles at it. “Isn’t so far from the truth is it not? Themyscira is long gone. In fact...lets give this island a new name” he teases, loving the thought of spitting in Hera’s face by the continued sacrilege.

He settles on an instantly appealing idea. 

“Nisi tou anthropou pou troei”.

Diana smiles herself at the name, finding it suitable. “The Isle of Man Eaters”. She chuckles to herself. “How fitting. But what of you my dear?” she asks as her mind retracts back to the point of their conversation. “What shall you do? I cannot long be without you and I hate pretending to belong to the Justice League when all I want is to reign beside you”.

“I will go to a land where your sisters can feast and grow stronger” he explains. “We need power, and true power at that”.

“Where is this land?” she asks worriedly. 

“Tartarus”.

“You cannot go back their beloved!” she seethes. “Hades will imprison you again”.

“Not with an army of your sisters at my back” he explains. “Think of the power that can be gained. In that dark land spirit manifests as flesh as to allow pain long after the cessation of one’s mortal body. This flesh can be consumed as I have found out”.

  
She slowly follows and indeed her eyes widen at the possibilities. 

“Hades, the Titans, the  Hecatoncheires, the shades contained within the Elysian fields. Diana it is virtually untapped power. With it we can bring the remnants of the world crashing to the ground…”.

“And then we can even tear down Olympus”.

“Now you are thinking big” he congratulates, groping the flesh of her rear through her stola. “Your sisters and I will take that power while you feast on the flesh of your magical comrades. When their secrets and tricks are revealed to you, you will be the one to feast upon Superman”.

“No beloved” she says, taking his hand and pressing a kiss to it. “We shall feast upon him and share his power between us”.

The two lovers lean their foreheads against one another, preparing to share another kiss before they are interrupted by the far off peel of thunder. They look out at the storm clouds descending over the sky, far out to see and Tantalus can’t help but chuckle.

“Hmm...your father is angry. Perhaps he has found out that his lover is dead”.

Diana herself was a bit frightened by this, though she hid it well. ‘My father...he will be a fight’. Still, she did relish the idea and irony of eating of both her mother and father’s flesh. “He cared not for Hippolyta. He had so many”.

“I’m not quite sure about that but regardless, Hera will soon be showing her face to the surviving Amazons who escaped us. Undoubtedly she will be surprised to see that her son is the one responsible for their survival.

She clenches her toes into the sand, hatred welling up in the pit of his stomach at the mere mention of the god. “He is responsible for all of our woes…”.

“At peace my queen. Be at peace”.

Tantalus steps back from her and smiles. “You best go now my dear or your parting will be ever more painful when it is time”.

“I shall call for Pegasus…”.

She brings her fingers up to whistle, hoping to summon the creature who had always been there for her. Her whistle is met with silence, and Pegasus does not appear. “Pegasus!” she calls out angrily. 

“He will not come for you Diana”.

“Why?” she snaps.

“Because you have forsaken the gifts of Hera for those of mine that I offer you” he explains. “But...my lasso and gauntlets…tiara..”.

“Have been taken from you too” he explains. “Hera is greedy in her gifts. She revokes them if she feels that you have betrayed her in any way. They are not gifts so much as incentive to continue being her good little lap dog, surrendering to her will” he explains. 

“But...how am I to fight without them?” she asks fearfully.

“Do you not still have the strength and speed of a demigod? The power of your sisters you’ve consumed, indeed your own mother? Your training made you a more than adequate fighter Diana, but combined with theirs? I think there is hardly a warrior on Earth fit to challenge you”.

“But…”.

“But what?” he asks, mocking her petulancy. “You wish to sacrifice the promise of all we can gain for a few trinkets of the gods? When we storm Olympus I shall seize them back for you my dear. I will even allow you to slit Hera’s throat and drink the sweet ambrosiac nectar of her blood from the source. Then she will see who is worthy and who is unworthy”.

Diana was still unconvinced, but Tantalus had no time to waste on that matter any longer. Instead he looks towards the sea and raises his hands upwards as if summoning something. At first nothing happens, but soon she sees dead fish, half rotten and decayed, rise to the surface. 

Other sea life, so plentiful around the unpolluted and undisturbed waters of Themyscira, begins to join the detritus. Sharks and squid, dolphins and even a humpback whale. They seemed to rot in front of her very eyes though her attention is quickly turned to the mass of bubbling water that brings a wooden boat upwards.

At first she could make out only the vague shape of a figure upon the boat, though it instantly becomes clear who it is. She gasps while seeing the skeletal robe covered figure, and turns to Tantalus who had a knowing smile upon his face. 

“Yes. I made friends while in the underworld. You see, Charon here is tired of how cluttered it is down there. Too many souls. So, in exchange for his help? I offered to clean it up for him”.

Charon’s skiff slowly comes closer to the shore, crashing into the sand and settling there. “Charon my friend, take the queen to Gotham City” the man explains. The monstrous ferryman only nods slowly, gesturing for Diana to move aboard, something she is aided in by Tantalus. “Remember my dear...you carry my heart with you” he explains, causing the woman to blush. 

“And mine with you”.

As soon as she is seated Charon casts off, using his long oar to push off against the beach, setting the skiff adrift in the ocean. It moved deceptively fast and before either knew it, the outline of the ship was all that could be seen until even that was gone. It would at worst take Charon a day to get to Gotham.

He had more important matters to attend to, and he turns to where the Amazons who know knew that their best chance for survival laid with following his commands, were feasting on the remnants. Soon they would have to move, if for nothing more than a lack of food.

He knew time was of the essence. He had to get them all into the Underworld where they could feast and become stronger. If the gods on Olympus knew it wouldn’t be long until word managed to make its way to Hades if the dark god didn’t already know.

‘It is time to assume our rightful place’.

**_Justice Society Headquarters_ **

Kommand’r awakens with a start and instantly struggles, thinking that her escape had been nothing but a dream and that she was still at the mercy of Superman and his goons. “No! No! Please! Stop!”

“Shh, easy...easy sweetie, you’re safe! I promise”.

The voice had a calming and pleasing tone to it that doesn’t remind her of any of her captors back at Superman’s camp. Instead, it felt...warm and even motherly. She opens her eyes, blinking as the lights around her glared on. The first sight she lays eyes upon was a masked woman with long blonde hair and pointed ears.

“You see? You’re okay. You’re with friends now”.

Batwoman gently hugs her close and runs her hand through the girl’s long black hair. “Thank you Batwoman, we thought it might help to have a calming presence”. Kommand’r, also known as Blackfire on her home planet, throws herself into the woman who hugs her back tightly. “Anytime Lex. Anytime”.

She was called due to her psychiatric expertise, and when she heard that it was a young woman in trouble? Well, it felt a bit like she needed to be there for more reasons than just the war for Gotham. Bruce stood behind them, a little aloof and held back from the group. Lex turns to him and nods. “Batman, I assume you were brought up to speed on what happened at the wall?”

“I was, though I’m hoping that maybe she can shed some light as to her identity and why she is here”.

He takes another look at the broken woman and adds, “if she feels up to it”.

Harleen was continuing to hold the woman, making sure that she felt someone was there for her in a physical way. Apparently this was a good tactic as the nightmarish fog that had held over the girl faded away.    
  


Slowly she retracts from what she undoubtedly saw as a safe position in Harley’s grasp, though she keeps her arms around the girl, remaining in bed. “I...I am princess Kommand’r of Tamaran”.

“Tamaran...where is that?” Bruce asks.

“It’s a planet in the Vega system. Very far away”.

She reaches up to wipe the tears away from her eyes and Harleen quickly fetches her a tissue from the table at her bedside. “Thank you” the girl says, blowing her nose. “You’re welcome sweetie. Is it okay if we ask what you’re doing all the way out here?”

Blackfire felt a bit like she was being talked down to, like a child, but when she looks at the people who surround her all she sees is concern. She can sense it from their body language as well. Instead of giving them a hard time, she decides to cooperate.

“Some time ago, my planet received a visit from an emissary of one calling himself Superman” she explains. “I...I didn’t really know what was going on. I’m a princess but I’m despised there. After my parent’s death my sister, Koriand’r, rose to power”.

“Why are you hated sweetie?”

“Because of a genetic defect” she explains, gesturing towards her hair and eyes. “Every man and woman on Tamaran has bright red hair and green eyes. I have black hair and purple eyes”.

“They’re very pretty eyes if you ask me”.

Blackfire rolls said eyes and blushes profusely, never having been complimented like that before. Bruce meanwhile lets out a little smile of his own. This was the older Harleen, the one who healed what was broken. After Barbara died he was afraid that she was becoming more and more like him. Cold and aloof. 

He was glad that that wasn’t the case.

“Thank you…”.

“You’re welcome sweetie”.

“We really need to know about why Superman…”.

Lex’s intrusion was cut off by a glare from Batwoman whom must assuredly hadn’t slacked off in that department. A bat glare from the blonde was only less frightening than one from Batman himself, but it was only by a degree or two if anything.

Her message was clear.

  
She was handling this interrogation and she was doing it the kind way.

Lex steps back, a frown on his face and respectfully allows Harleen to continue. She turns back to the Tamaranean girl. “Sweetie, you were saying about Superman, and your sister Koriand’r?”

The girl takes a moment to catch her breath though she quietly resumes her conversation. “I...when she called me into the throne room that day, I thought maybe..maybe, I’d be able to live in the light with the rest of them. Enjoy my life. Do all the things other Tamaraneans took for granted. I was tired of living along in my room. A prison. I was so happy and when I saw her, my sister upon that throne? I loved her. I thought that she’d reverse what my parents had done by locking me away”.

She begins to cry. “I continued to think that for a long time. I was told that I was going to Earth to be an ambassador of Tamaran. She smiled at me and told me about how I would have so much fun and adventure. How I’d see worlds I’d never even thought of before and...and…”.

  
She stops to collect herself, trying to find where best to continue. “When I landed, I was led to a tent to meet Superman” she says while spitting out the name in a rage. “There, a massive primate I’ve since learned it to be, a gorilla, he used his powers on me. What an evil species”.

“Gorilla Grodd” Batman supplies, causing the woman to nod quickly. “Yes! That was his name! Do laws not apply here to krthlego’korhg?” she says, using a Tamaranean word. The group in the room look at each other confusingly before Harleen turns back to her.

“Sweetie...I can’t evens say that word let alone know what it means”.

“Ohh...I’m sorry. It’s akin to the crime of mind control. On Tamaran it is a crime to rob even the lowliest slave of their free will and thought”.

“Well...I don’t think that there is a rule against mind control specifically on the books here on Earth” she says, “but blackmail, coercement and making anyone doing anything against their will is illegal”.

“Then arrest his on that! Report him to the other gorillas and have him thrown in jail!”

Her eyes blazed with her righteous anger and Harleen is worried for a second until it falls away with a sigh from the girl. “Well Kommand’r, can I call you Koma maybe? Your name just sounds so harsh and you’re a sweet girl”.

“I...I have never had someone want to shorten my name” she admits. “It is harsh. Blackfire is meant to be an insult. Evil. Corrupted it means”.

“Well all I see is a beautiful girl so K or Koma works for me if it works for you”.

It was amazing how quickly Harleen could get someone on her side, though it would be argued that it was because of her training. “I can assure you Princess Komman...K, Grodd will be brought to prosecute him to the fullest extent of our law. Well, human law. When it comes to gorillas he’s special. Not many other gorillas have telepathy or can speak”.

“Ohh...good. He’s horrid”.

Harleen takes her hand and gestures for her to go on about why she was on Earth, knowing that it was vitally important to Gotham and their mission to protect it. “After I was...sufficiently pliant, Superman revealed his true mission to me” she says. “He’s looking for an heir, someone he can extend his rule out with past his own lifetime. He chose a Tamaranean because we are strong. He complimented me with that as he….he…”.

“I think we have enough Luthor” Bruce says, his conscience being affected by how the girl breaks down. 

“No...thank you for your concern...Batman” Koma says, remembering the man’s name. She was appreciative of the man’s concern, but she refused to be a wilting little flower that would never recover. She would grow strong as a true Tamaranean. ‘I’ll prove them all wrong! One day I will be Queen of Tamaran!’.

“I must...I must get it out. It is vital for you to know everything if you’re going to defend this place” she says. “He was successful in impregnating me” she scowls.

“You’re carrying Superman’s child” Lex says rhetorically. “No wonder he would risk coming to our walls to get it back”.

“I do not wish to be, but yes I am…”.

“There are...options for you” Lex says causing both Harley and Bruce, people who did not agree with what he was suggesting at all, look away. They didn’t want to say anything, not now.

“Impossible” Kommand’r says. “Upon my voyage to Earth I read as much as was available and gifted to us about your laws and customs. I thought it would come in handy in my role as ambassador. I have heard of that, and I can tell you it is impossible for Tamaraneans”.

“Why if you don’t mind me asking?” Lex asks, wondering if it was a religious hangup or something biological.

“We are a warlike race and thus are always fighting. In order to ensure that birthrates stay up, our people evolved to be virtually unaffected by miscarriages or other such things. The lives of our young are connected to us in a way much greater than your species” she says. “If the baby dies, we die, so interconnected are our functions until the birth”.

“Ohh...wow” Harleen says, looking at the girl whom was deathly afraid. She hid it behind a fierce expression but Harleen could read the look. She’d seen it herself in the mirror after she took her own pregnancy test.

“How long do Tamaranean pregnancies last?” Batman asks.

“Two of your Earth months. Our race has evolved to be efficient in this manner” she says darkly. “There is a reason I am the first mutation to be seen in over two thousand generations”.

“Don’t call yourself a mutation sweetie” Harleen says. Blackfire blinks, unsure of what to say to her kind words. “Why not? That is what my own mother and father referred to me as”.

“Well you’re not” Harleen says firmly. “You’re a beautiful girl whose been through hell and is safe now okay?”.

The woman was cowed by Batwoman’s fierceness, something that she as a warrior could respect. “Okay”. She turns back to Luthor and looks to him hopefully.

“This child that I have, it will be able to help you in this war against Superman?”

“Yes” the man nods.

Her next question was one that was obviously uncomfortable to ask for the woman, but she felt she had to ask it anyways. “Is there a place you can take them? Where they can be happy and loved?”

Lex himself wasn’t too taken aback having foreseen this as another option. He nods to her question and reaches out to take her hand. “I promise, they’ll be well taken care of”.

She looks down at the hand and begins to cry to herself, part of her mind telling her that this was wrong. She knew what her heart was saying though, and she had to put it to words. “I...I wouldn’t be able to love them. Not after all of this and…”.

“Shhh...we understand” Harleen says. “We’ll make sure that someone who will love them very much and can handle whatever powers they’ll have will get them. You have my word K”.

“Thank you Batwoman”.

There were a few possibilities and all of them held promise to one degree or another. Even Lex himself was thinking about the possibilities and not just from a scientific, self serving perspective.

‘Your own childhood was...less than optimal’ he thinks before wiping the thought away. ‘Later. Later. We all have two months at least to decide what happens’.

**_Right Outside the Gotham Defensive Wall_ **

“Woah, we’re a little to close for comfort Zee”.

The woman turns and grasps the man by the throat, hissing as she lifts him off of the ground. Kent Nelson, a.k.a Dr. Fate, struggled in the air, gasping for breath. “Do not call me that” she says, dropping him as suddenly as she had turned on him. 

The man grasps his throat as he lays in the dust, gasping for breath. “And keep it down as well” she whispers, turning and stepping forward. “Did you bring Nabu?”

The man slowly rises to his feet, still wary of the woman as they hide behind the remains of a destroyed gas station. A searchlight mounted up on the wall passes over the building, though it doesn’t spot them. He gestures to his backpack, still angry at the treatment he received but knowing that it was smart to just go along with it.

“Yeah but why can’t I wear him?”

“Because I need you cutie, not Nabu but it’s best if he comes along for the ride”. 

The man was cowed by the woman’s flirtations, as he always was. In fact she counted on it. When they’d found him working at a strip club the Justice League knew that he’d be pliable enough to use, at least as a soldier. He was desperate after all. When they found out that he was the chosen carrier of the helm of Nabu, the avatar of the Lords of Order?    
  
Lets just say he didn’t have a choice in joining after that.

“Why are we here?”

“Because we’re on a special mission for Superman” she says, gesturing with her hand that they should move before the next beam of light hit. It was easy enough to get to the wall, especially at night. After all, the defenders of Gotham wanted the soldiers and forces of Superman to come close so they could inflict casualties. Getting into Gotham? It was impossible, for a myriad of different reasons.

They slam into the steel base of the wall and take a breather, Zatanna leaning down to open the pack she’d brought. “Now, umm...how the hell are we going to get into the city then?” Kent asks, leaning against the wall as well. He was much better dressed for running across no man’s land than Zee was, but he was the one panting.

Undoubtedly out of fear.

  
She retracts a book from her bag and lays it out on the ground, quickly going over the incantation that she had gotten from Trigon.

“A soul snare” she says, tiring of his incessant questions and whimpering.

“Woah...umm, wait a minute. Nabu once told me that those were seriously dark magics” he says. Zee doesn’t even look up and instead she just nods. “Yes, very but it’s the only way we’re getting into the city unfortunately”.

“Are you sure Superman asked for me to handle this directly?”

She looks up at him and studies his fearful face with a smile. ‘Stupid, naive, trusting and utterly disposable’. She reaches out and pats his face. “You’re the perfect one for this sweetie”.   
  
She returns to her work and lays out all that will be needed, pulling out a sickly sharp knife that seemed like it would slice on even the slightest of touches. Kent was a little shocked at it being there, so he decided to fill the silence by asking some more questions, unaware of how much that annoyed the sorceress.

“So um...why can’t we get into the city?”

“Constantine” she hisses. “He’s linked his and everyone else’s soul to the magical forcefield protecting the city making it impossible to get in unless you take a little drastic measure”.

“Like what?”

“Well, in order to best get into the city I need a soul snare which will make the city’s forcefield believe that this small section is also covered by it, but it wont last very long. I also need someone’s soul in order to cloak myself while I work. If it does work? Well I’ll be able to slip in undetected” she says.

“And once you’re in there? Wait, where is the other soul coming from?”

She rolls her eyes and decides to answer only his first question, intentionally avoiding his second for now. “I’m going to find Raven and sell her to Trigon in exchange for his protection, immortality and a pleasurable sex life”.

“None of that sounds like it’s to help Superman at all” he accuses.

“It isn’t. I lied”.

She loved the look of confusion that crosses over his face, in fact she revelled in it. Being the only one who understand where things were going and why they were going that way. It was hilarious to her. A simple game.    
  
“What’s in it for me?” Kent asks, like a petulant child, even going so far as to cross his arms over his chest. “You dragged me all the way out here, made me risk my life. I better be getting something out of this”.

She reaches up and undoes her mask, exposing the mouth and teeth that always set everyone else around her at unease. “How about a kiss?”

She leans outwards and grabs him by the shoulders, pulling the man in until their lips indeed were connected. But this was nothing like a kiss. Instead she rips into his face and savages his lips, taking the opportunity to sever his tongue. 

He squirmed and tried to get away, but she just leaned in on him and forced him to the ground. Suddenly he goes stick still as Zee had picked up the knife and plunged it right into his chest, into which is slid with ease.

Kent’s eyes go wide in fear at the pain he felt, and then rather the lack of anything he could feel. By the time he realized what had happened, all life was gone from him and he slipped into death, his eyes wide and unseeing as they peered into the night sky.

Zatanna got right to work and begins to slice open his ribcage, needing the heart for her task at hand. It was taking a lot of effort, but slowly, like opening a crab leg, her gorey work was complete. She reaches into the man’s destroyed chest and pulls out the heart, which even now began to beat in her hand due to her residual magic. “Good” she says, looking down at Kent’s body.    
  


“You weren’t completely useless”.

She slams the heart against the wall and pierces through it with the knife, pinning it to the steel behind it surprisingly enough. “Trigon...I invoke thy name, bind his soul and keep the flame, let me through the hallowed gate, be quick, don’t make me wait”.

He had told her to cry out to him after making the demon well aware of her plans and the dilemmas that faced the actual completion of those plans. He’d given her all the tools she’d need, and Superman gave her a worthy sacrifice.

_ “Deliver my daughter to me, the key to unlocking the gateway to your world and I promise that you will not only serve as my thrall, but as a wife to be beloved and worshipped through eternity. I swear it”. _

Part of that did sound good. After all, she didn’t have any feelings one way or another on Trigon personally. ‘The lovemaking will be legendary and to be adored by the most powerful demon lord? Might not be so bad’.

Her thoughts were on what she would do to Constantine when she got the chance. She’d find a way to make him immortal of course. Where was the fun in only killing or hurting him in one time? No. Instead she would force him to confront his mistake every minute of every day and remind him of what he could’ve had had he not been so cowardly.

She feels the power echoing through her and watches as the steel begins to bend as the magic charms attached to it expand. It leaves it and soon expands outwards even more, creating a little bubble around this section of the wall.

“Excellent” she says to herself, placing her hand palm down on the wall itself. “Nepo ot em” she whispers, and the wall indeed follows her commands. The rivets and bolts bend inwards, creating a section of the wall that she could walk through. It would revert as soon as she entered but that was good. She was convinced of her success and knew that she wouldn’t need a escape path.

  
She reaches out quickly and picks up the helmet of Nabu, slipping it onto her own head. It’s a challenge to keep the spirit of the helmet from taking over, but one that she has mastered. “Who..who are you? You are not Kent”.

“No. I’m your new driver” she says, bringing her cloak up to hide her identity and move through the hole, hearing it bend back into place and hiding her ever being there. “You have dark desires. You seek chaos and corruption. I will not allow...wha….wha…”.

“Shhhh” she whispers. “Taste that? It’s a nice little tonic I put in my hair. Normally it wouldn’t have affected you but hey...I’m a real witch”.

“You’re...no...killing me…”.

“No Nabu” she says, hearing his death throes in her mind. “You’re already dead and your lords of order are doomed too”.

She didn’t focus on that, as it was already over. She was alone in one of Gotham’s streets the curfew being something that was strictly enforced. She’d have to get to the Justice Society which was in the middle of the city but with magic?   
  


Well, anything was possible.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright so I'm a little worried about this chapter. I used a character who is not DC canon. He serves his purpose though and he only exists in the story for maybe three or four paragraphs. Let me know if you guys liked it! I wanted to throw something in that would be utterly unpredictable but I'm hoping it didn't ruin the story.

**_Justice Society of America Headquarters_ **

Raina was tired, though she refused to stop. Not yet. She had to have the answer, and as she searched through the tome before her she craned her eyes over every word, hoping it would pop out at her. Surely the monks of Azarath would have left SOMETHING useful, anything. Instead...nothing, not beyond which she had already learned. 

She closes it and brings her hands up to her face, rubbing over her tired eyes. ‘They left me all this information’ she thinks, regarding the Soviet paranormal research division, ‘and yet none of it helps me now’.

She places her hands back on the desk and looks around at the empty barracks that had been supplied to them. No one was there as most of the soldiers had been given leave to explore the slowly expanding world of the tunnels being built beneath Gotham. They were supposed to only be for when the Justice League began to barrage the city but they held an infinite fascination for the men for some reason.

Terra and Vertigo were on patrol and the colonel was busy with a briefing that was happening at Wayne Tower.

She was bored, and one of the few people that could alleviate that boredom was Garfield. She smiled to herself at the thought of the easy friendship she’d struck up with the green skinned boy. At first she only wanted to help him through his grief, a grief that was still strong. Slowly she began to enjoy his company. She found him to be rather humorous and entertaining when he told stories or jokes.

She resolves to go see if he was busy and to that end stands, pushing the chair back and causing it to loudly scrape against the floor. The noise was succeeded by another noise from behind her. Her blood runs cold and her eyes widen, her military training kicking into overdrive as she turns, alert and ready to meet the threat.

She finds...nothing.

Nothing but empty air behind her. Yet the feeling of dread remained, and so did the knowledge that someone was in the room with her. She could feel their thoughts, intense and hateful as they were.

“For a soldier you really don’t have all that much situational awareness”.

The voice comes from above her and she looks up just in time for Zatanna to cancel the charm that allows her to stick to the ceiling. Raven could only stare for a moment before the woman falls atop her, sending them both scuffling to the floor. Raven brings her hands upward, trying to summon her powers.    
  
“Azarath Metrion Zin…mmm!”

“Ecnelis reh!” Zatanna says, getting her own spell off much quicker than the girl could’ve. A thick black band of summoned magic covers the grey skinned girl’s mouth, preventing her from speaking. Zatanna then straddles her waist, pinning the girl by her wrists to the floor as she struggled beneath her, muffled shouts being the only sound she could produce.

Zatanna was wearing Nabu atop her head, obscuring her identity to the girl though it could safely be bet that she was certainly not a friendly.

“Dinb reh”.

Four straps made of the same thing material covering her mouth appear and wrap about her wrists and legs, allowing Zatanna to get off of her, secure in the knowledge that she wouldn’t be able to escape. She gets to her feet and reaches upward, removing the helmet and throwing it away, her use for it being gone.

‘You served two purposes Kent’.

Raina continued to struggle against her bindings, though it was a futile struggle. Zee decides to take a moment to taunt her. “My, my, is this the best the Soviet Union could offer?” she asks. “No wonder if fell the first time around. A little witch playing at magic”.

  
Raina’s eyes harden and she glares at the woman hatefully, so many questions swirling through her mind. Zee could read them all, though she doesn’t let that stop her from her preparations. She takes her bag and opens it, retracting the jar of Himilayan pink salt, a rather potent conjurer of dark magic. She moves around Raina, leaning down to pour the salt in perfect lines. 

“My name is Zatanna Zatara, and I’m your father’s newest acolyte” she explains, forming the pentagram on the wooden floor around the girl, making sure that Raina’s struggling, which only picks up at the mention of her father, wouldn’t disrupt the lines.

‘Trigon! Nyet! Nyet!’

She wanted to explain to the woman what letting him loose would really do to the world. It wouldn’t work most likely, but still...in this world? Trigon would have a never ending feast of sorrow to met out against its inhabitants. 

“He’s offered me a spot at his side if you can believe it” she says, finally emptying the jar of salt and tossing it away to shatter in the corner. “I’ll be your new step mommy”. She reaches forward and pokes her finger against Raina’s nose causing her to twist her head to get away. Zee doesn’t take notice and moves back to the preparations it would take to bring Trigon into this world. 

“Actually...well, probably not” she says, removing her pestle and mortar from a bag, retrieving a lock of hair from Raina who tries to crane her head away from the woman in a vain attempt to prevent her from getting her hair.

It doesn’t work as the bindings around her don’t let her get far with how tightly they pinned her to the floor. “I mean, you’re going to die because of this right? He’ll open the portal and come on through”.

She retracts the same knife she used to kill Kent from her pack, smirking with wicked glee as she teases it up and down the girl’s cheek, beginning to draw blood. “It’s gonna suck for you”.

**_Just Outside of Gotham_ **

Ares scanned the ravaged coastline, trying to make sense of what he was seeing beyond the fact that numerous large battles had been fought here. Aside from the wreckage of gutted out ships, splintered dock wood and charred sand, the bodies were a dead giveaway.

They floated so freely here that sharks openly feasted on their flesh, seemingly without fear. A few had even come close to the stalled trireme which had weighed anchor and was now resting in the water, idly rising and falling with the waves that lashed against its hull.

“Do you see anything?”

He turns to see a nervous looking Adriane behind him and he shakes his head to the negative. “I’m afraid not general. Only the remnants of battle. This is assuredly Gotham though”.

“Hmm…”.

She was indecisive, unsure of what she should order her sisters and the god of war to do. So far they had just been hoping to get here, but now that Gotham was standing right in front of them? She was clueless. 

Its walls were imposing, indeed impassable for her and her cohort. ‘How would we signal them, and even more importantly, how would we convince them that we are not their enemy?’

“What are you thinking general?”

“You’re the god of war” she accuses, though her point flies over the man’s head.

“So?”

“Shouldn’t you be the one with the grand plan for storming the walls?”

He seemed to ponder her question before settling on an appropriate answer, though he asks for permission to voice it first. “May I speak freely general?”

Adriane sighs and looks down, shaking her head in exasperation. “You don’t need to keep deferring to me you know? You’ve more than proven that you’re on our side”. It was as close as she’d get to thanking the man for his help. While her sisters tried to deny it, they wouldn’t have survived and would indeed be half starved cannibals or said cannibal’s meal by now if it hadn’t been for the timely intervention of the god.

“I swore an oath to you, and I swore my sword” he explains.

“So you still need my permission to talk?”

“Yes”.

He enjoyed the discomfort he caused in the woman, seeing it as a small bit of retribution for being reduced to such a lowly position. She respected him all the more for it. ‘Defiant, even when he has no choice but to be subservient’.

“Then tell me ohh great warrior. What is your suggestion?”

“Is that flattery I hear?”

“It’s me nicely demanding that you tell me how to get out of this” she teases back, unable to comprehend that she was here, standing aboard a trireme with the last of her sisters in front of a fortress city of man’s world, flirting of all things! With the god of war. 

The man acquiesces and casts his gaze back over the city, raising his arm and pointing towards the rear of the city. “My best idea is to set up camp there, at the foot of their defenses. Burn fires and let them know of our presence until they are forced to parley”.

“And leave us exposed to their fire in case they decide not too talk?” Adriane asks in shock. “Well, yes...it is a sign of submission that they most likely will take to mean we have peaceful intentions, which we do, towards them at least”.

“Any other options?”

She was definitely not a fan prostrating herself before such rigid defenses without raising her own war banner. Looking back upon her sleeping sisters and the few who maintained a guard on both ships she knew that wasn’t an option. 

‘We’d last seconds...a minute at most against the weapons that man’s world has’.

“We can wait until Superman’s forces attack”.

Now that was an interesting idea. She looks back at the man, waiting for further explanation. It was something he was more than willing to give, loving the art of tactics more than anything else. “It is clear that Superman has thrown his men at the wall again and again, judging by the bodies which litter the ground, but he himself has not been able to attack or get close”.

“What makes you say that?”

He smirks in such a way as to make her feel foolish and attracted to him at the same time, a strange feeling to say the least. ‘Men will never be good Adriane. Remember what happened that led to you and your sisters becoming Amazons’.

“If Superman, as strong as we have heard him to be, was truly able to bring his full strength into this fight then these walls would have crumbled long ago”.

  
“Then they must have a special weapon to keep him away!” she chirps out excitedly. 

“Ahh very astute. Yes, you are correct general. Now, he is a petty tyrant. I’ve seen the type a million times. In many ways I am like him. He most likely enjoys the bloodshed on his behalf. The ability to send men to their deaths upon a whim and since he controls the entire world save Gotham he has ample resources to fulfill this twisted vision. So, what better way to show the Gothamites we are on their side…”.

“Then moving in and slaughtering their foes from behind” she finishes.

Ares smiles and nods. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend. It is the best plan I can come up with at this moment general. Our options are...limited”.

She turns to speak to the man again before something shakes the ship, indeed the very Earth around them. The waves begin to roll and rise, sending the trireme feet into the air and then crashing down. Adriane is unable to catch her footing and falls forward against the man who was. He secures her in his arm which goes about her waist to keep her still while his other moves to the railing, anchoring them both to the ship.

Her sisters were not so fortunate. 

They had been forced to sleep atop the deck and were now awoken by the crashing of the waves and the rolling of the surf. It was only the raised shields secured to the side of the ship for added armor that kept them from falling overboard, though they bumbled into one another with ease, the sounds of curses and screams of pain echoing out.

Ares kept his hold upon her, and she found it warm, uncharacteristically so of the god. The ship slowly settles, as does her sister ship to the left, neither having been capsized in the waves. “It seems my uncle does not like our plan”.

Adriane looks at him and then at his arm, trying to communicate the matter to him without embarrassing the man with her words. Ares takes a moment before it settles on him and he releases her, an apology on his lips.

She smiles and shakes her head, feeling somewhat rejuvenated by the feeling of mastery over their destiny. “Thank you from keeping me from going overboard. I am not in the mood for a swim”. She turns her head and looks back out over the city, shocked by what she sees.

“That...most certainly isn’t one of my family members” Ares says.

Half of the wall was destroyed, nothing but scrap metal now, and in the breach opened up by the portal now present before it stood a creature the size of a titan. It was a man, or at least male, judging by its build and facial features. Its skin was red and atop its head were two large horns, its eyes being the most frightening as they split into two pairs of fiery orbs.

“I am Trigon!” the voice booms out, shaking the entire Earth with its force. “I am your conqueror! Bow before me or be vanquished!”.He leans down with his hand and shatters a building closest to him, before he attempts to bring his foot down upon another dwelling. He brings it up, though he stumbles in doing so, some force or object holding him back. The monster looks down to see that a massive binding still existed around his ankle, chaining him to whatever was on the other side of the portal.

He howls in rage and anger from his so close to freedom yet so far predicament. He turns his face to the sky and shouts “RAINA!”.

“Who is Raina?” Adriane asks, trying to settle on anything but the scene of horror before her as fortress Gotham was breached. “It doesn’t matter right now” Ares says, in control of himself as usual. “Look!”

He points to the portal and the creatures that were creeping their way through, scavenging over the land like a pack of dogs. Soldiers begin to fan out over the remaining walls of the super structure and automatic fire is instantly heard. It was not going to be a fight they would win apparently, but they were giving it their damndest. 

That was enough for Ares.

“I think we must change our plans a bit” he explains. “We must attack the beach and that monster’s army from the rear. Amazons!” he turns, looking at the women who were already ready in their armor and holding their weapons. “Are you ready to play a game of Thermopalye?” 

That was enough to earn their support.

“AWOO! AWOO! AWOO!”

The clang of spear shafts impacting against the deck was more than sufficient proof of their willingness for war. He turns to Adriane and smiles, a little embarrassed at having usurped her authority once again. 

“I apologize general”.

“Don’t” she says. “That inspired them. And cease calling me general. You’ve fought beside me enough and are planning to do it again. You have earned my the right to call me by my name Ares, god of war”.

It was presumptuous and arrogant, but it was also a uniquely Amazon bravado that he could do nothing but appreciate. ‘Telling a god he has earned the right to use your name...pfft….the spirit on this one’.

“It shall be one of the greatest honors I will count to myself then Adriane”.

The woman raises her fist, signalling for the Amazons on both ships to be ready to sail into the demonic battleground that they were facing. She opens her fist and pushes her hand out, signalling that they should attack.

Two of her sisters, one on each ship, blow their sapinx at the signal, the horn like instrument signalling for the Amazons below in the galley to start rowing while the sails on the mast are lowered. The ships lurch forward and the on deck warrior women prepare their bows, wanting to release a volley of arrows to cover their sisters and Ares who would attack head on, the hoplites already knowing their job.

“Beware the toils of war, the mesh of the huge dragnet sweeping up the world”.

“What?”

Ares just smiles and turns to Adriane. “Homer” he explains, looking back at the monstrosity awaiting before them with a grimace. “Whoever he is, he’s about to face the wrath of the Amazons and the god of war. May Hades pity him”.

Adriane wouldn’t admit it to the man outright, but he gave one hell of speech to inspire them.

**_Back in the Justice Society_ **

Many cuts dotted the girl’s skin, her blood bleeding through the fabric of her uniform and some even out onto the floor, droplets floating through the pentagram and mixing with the pink salt to give it a reddish hue much more akin to blood. It was only halfway complete, and Zatanna was taking her time with it. “Ohh my sweet little sacrifice” she coos. “You’re giving so much so that I can be free”.

She struggles again, though weakly due to the loss of blood she felt. If something wasn’t done soon she knew she was going to die. ‘Please...help me’.

The earth was rocking and she could hear her dreaded father’s voice booming out. While he wasn’t free, the amount of her blood that had been spilled was enough to at least get him through the portal a bit. Any more though and Trigon would walk the Earth.

That had to be stopped. 

“I just want you to know it’s really not personal. Like I said, I just need you to die so I can get out of a nasty little mess my friend got me in. That’s all. You’d do the same thing if you were me”.

As she finishes her words, a dark shape in the form of a large red raven enters the room by smashing through a window, sending glass shards everywhere. Zee covers her face with her arm and Raina herself was covered by the form of the woman above her. 

“WHY ARE YOU STALLING LITTLE WITCH!”

It was clear who the voice belonged to, and as it changed into a red mass that swirls about in a raging inferno, Raina cries for the first time since she was a child. She looks away as well, not wanting her eyes to land on the beast who had sired her, whose blood ran through her very veins.

“Easy Trigon” Zatanna says. “The girl is here...I’m just having a bit of fun”.

“You can have all the fun you desire when I am free and we control this realm. Release me now!” the voice seethes. 

“Tsk, tsk, tsk...I don’t like being talked to like that, especially by my future hubby” she says, hissing herself. “You will be nothing but crushed flesh under my foot if you do not heed me!”.

“I am Zatanna Zatara!” she shouts, standing erect and showcasing her power via the orbs of energy which encircle her. “I said I would free you and I will! I have more powe…”.

A dark chuckle interupts her as the demon speaks. “You foolish little witch. You simply do not know when to stop playing these ridiculous little games of yours. Your soul is on the line! And I am the only one willing to save you, though it will only be for myself. Now! Kill the girl and release me!”

Her mind is brought back to reality and indeed she remembers the precarious situation she has found herself in. “Y...yes my lord Trigon. Yes. I will. I will!”

She straddles the girl’s waist again and raises the knife above her head, intending to bring it down on the fiercely struggling girl’s chest who was now using the very last reserves of her strength to try and resist.

“YES! YES! MY FREEDOM IS AT HAND!”

Zatanna herself was excited, echoing the sentiment in her mind. She would finally be free. Free of her dark pact with Cthulhu. Free of Superman. Free of everything! Her life would be nothing but pleasure from now on. Nothing would stop her.

She plunges the knife downwards, ready to thrust down into her flesh when the entrance to the barracks bursts open. She doesn’t even have a chance to see who it was before she hears his voice. “Projiciamus!” Constantine shouts, Garfield and Vixen standing beside him.

The green boy sees Raina in trouble and throws himself forward, changing into the form of a ram in midair. The knife is plucked out of Zatanna’s hands by Constatine’s spell, and she is thrown off of Raina by the boy who had the ability to morph his body.

She falls backward, skidding along the floor and stopping before the spectral projection of Trigon. “STUPID LITTLE WITCH!”

The others don’t have time to deal with her as they rush to Raina, Garfield reaching down after he reverts to his human form to try and free Raina from the constructs that bind her. He was unsuccessful and John takes a moment to stop and gauge what was going on with Raina who looked wide eyed up at the men trying to help her.

“It’s alright Raina. We’re gonna get you out of here mama” he says, trying to pull her wrists free but not wanting to force it in case it hurt her. Vixen was shocked to see the demonic entity, and all of her focus was upon it as it glared into her very soul.

Zatanna meanwhile was rubbing her head as she rose to her feet, angered by such an intrusion. ‘Shouldn’t they be out there fighting Trigon’s army?’ she asks herself before raising her hands once more and shouting “Dnib meht”.

The same constructs that bound Raina formed in the air, three sets of four, and soon they rocket out to catch the three Justice Society members unaware. They propel them back against the wall, pining them to it. All three struggle, but they know it’s hopeless. 

And Zatanna now had John in her sights again. 

“Hello John”.

  
She moves to her feet and begins to walk towards the exorcist, prompting Trigon to become even more enraged. “RAINA! FINISH THE GIRL ZATANNA! FREE ME!”

She looks over her shoulder and holds a single finger up. “Give me a minute”.

“WE DO NOT HAVE TIM…”.

It was clear that the sorceress was ignoring him though, her attention focused back on the blonde man. “Hello love..”.

“Love...it’s been such a long time since you called me that”. She leans forward to touch his cheek, unable to stifle the feeling she still had for the man deep down. She moves in to kiss him, though he turns his face at the last second, preventing such an action. 

She’s hurt, but she also understands why. “None of this would’ve happened to me had you been there”.

“Get the hell away from him!”

Vixen had called out angrily and now she wanted to rip the woman’s eyes out. Zee turns and snarls, her long snakelike tongue exposed. “This is your new whore huh?”.

“I have feelings for her yes”.

John admitted it straight out, trying to buy time and think of a way to play this. Mari herself wasn’t expecting that and she blushes profusely, trying not to smile despite the horrifying situation they found themselves in. 

“Why did you abandon me?”

“I didn’t Zee” he says, looking her in the eyes. “You went too far. I couldn’t follow you into that darkness sweetie...and I tried to keep you from going even deeper. I wanted to save you Zee, but now...I see that maybe you don’t want to be saved”.

He looks towards Raina and smiles, giving the girl an assuring wink. “Seems more like you just want to hurt people to make sure you get what you want and come out on top of all this. Wasn’t like that before”.

“It doesn’t have to be John!” she pleads. “I can change...I promise…”.

“What are you doing witch?” Trigon asks impatiently, his wariness of the woman’s speech with the obviously former lover getting to him.

She ignores him and moves on. “I just need to be free of this...all it is is one girl John. What’s one girl?”

“Let her go!” Garfield shouts, struggling to try and once more get to his friend. “If you’d have just joined me we could’ve ruled this world with what we know”.

“Love, I already know enough, and trust me, the last thing I want to do is rule the world” he explains, wanting to cut to the point. “Are you really going to kill this girl Zee? Are you really going to sacrifice her soul for your own?”

He sees the answer in her eyes which harden with the realization that he wouldn’t join nor endorse her. ‘He’s not going to save you!’ she shouts mentally. ‘Then I will save myself’.

“Yes John and then Trigon will be free to destroy the world and I’ll make sure you’re around to witness it but I’ll first let you watch me skin your whore!” she spits, gesturing to Vixen.

“Thought so...before you go on about all that, wanna check what I have in my pocket?”

She’s instantly intrigued, and when he gestures down to his trenchcoat pocket he knows that she is hooked. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I have a deal to make with you” he says. “Something that’ll free you without having to kill the girl…”.

“You’re lying” she says accusingly while Trigon roars in frustration, unable to coax Zatanna back to their mission. ‘Mortals are so easily distracted!’. He would admit though, he was interested to see what the man was offering. ‘Whatever it is I can coax her back to my side with it...I undoubtedly have power or sway over any other demonic artifacts’.

John smiles and chuckles. “Well, only one way for you to find out love”.

Zee looked down at his coat, unsure of what to do or if she could trust him. “Come on Zee, you know how forgetful I am. I don’t keep anything dangerous next to my ciggies. I’m liable to forget it’s there and lose a hand”.

She smiles at that, indeed knowing that that was his modus operandi when it came to storage on his person. Slowly her hand goes out, and reaches into the fabric, her long digits folding around something square and instantly intriguing.

She pulls it out and gets a good look at it, studying the myriad of lines that crisscross across the box. “What is it? It looks like...like a puzzle box”.

Trigon’s projection withers at that, backing away fearfully, something that John notices and wants to use against the entity. “It’s called the Lament Configuration” he says. “Witch...throw that contraption away! Throw it away and pretend you never saw it!”

“He’s scared of you having that power Zee” he says. “He knows that all that awaits you is pleasure”.

  
Zee continues to look at the box, the allure of it proving to be very strong. Stronger than anything she’d ever felt before. “What’s your pleasure Zee?”

**_East Gotham Docks_ **

Adriane brought her sword down upon the demon before her, cleaving it in two with her fearsome strength. The two halves of the body slide apart with ease, though she hears a horrible cry from behind her as a winged beast descends upon her. She brings up her shield, hoping that the integrity of the bronze and wood would hold. 

She closes her eyes and braces for an impact which never comes.    
  
The cries continue, though this time they were much more pained. Ares, with a speed that befitted a god, stepped in front of her and grasped the neck of the creature, allowing it to writhe in his hands. This only goes on for another second until he snaps its neck, throwing the carcass away into the water.

“I had him handled”.

  
“Of course you did” he says, a hint of mirth there. “But I want some glory for myself Adriane”.

She looks up and down the beach where many of her sisters were engaged in combat. For now they were holding, and no casualties had been taken. But the beasts...they just kept crawling from the portal. What they lacked in combat effectiveness they more than made up for in numbers.

At the breach in the wall her remaining sisters had formed a phalanx, blocking any entry of the demons into the city. A veritable corpse wall had been set up before them, hindering any further assaults. The soldiers defending the city had added their firepower to the mix, making the body wall even higher. 

Still, it was a battle that would end in only one way. Even now her sisters were growing fatigued. They had to do something.

Adriane swings her sword out, catching a demon in the throat with her point before bringing it back into her, letting the corpse fall. She was studying the massive one, the one who had announced itself as Trigon. It had stopped moving, and indeed it seemed distracted. 

“That is the key to all of this” Ares says. “This Trigon being”.

“But how could we hope to take something such as that by ourselves?” Adriane asks while Ares turns to her. “Do you not forget that you are with a god?”

He brings his fingers up to his mouth and lets out a firm whistle, which only seems to attract a group of the creatures to them. Ares doesn’t move despite Adriane’s worry about their numbers. “Ares! Ares! Behin…”.

The demons are suddenly squashed, the rest forgetting their intent as a winged horse descends upon them, trampling them and moving with the speed of Hermes himself. Before long, their attackers are nothing more than red past upon the sand and Pegasus stands there before them in all his glory. Adriane was dumbstruck, though Ares simply walks up to the beast, pats his mane and mounts him. 

Pegasus stomps his hoof back against the sand, whinying as it looks at the commander of the Amazons. “If it is distracted then it has a weak spot. My fear has always been to lose my eyes” he teases while gesturing at her bow slung over her back. “Do you think you can hit all four of them Amazon?”

She smiles at the utter gall, the bravery and ingenuity. It wasn’t ensured to work, but it was better than nothing. She rushes to the mythical horse and jumps on its back, her arms going about Ares’ waist. “Don’t get any ideas”.

“Wouldn’t dream of it”.

He whips the reins of Pegasus back and the horse moves onto its hind legs before launching itself into the air. Adriane is given a bit of a start by the abrupt loss of solid ground beneath her, but she holds on for dear life as Pegasus moves hundreds of feet into the air. “Ready your bow” he says, leveling off so as to allow her a fair shot. She moves the weapon off of her back, notches an arrow and aims with practiced ease.

Within a second it is loosed, and the projectile flies through the air, landing right in the lower right eye of the monster. It howls in pain and steps back, almost falling back into the portal. As it gets closer the chain about its legs tightens, seeming to want to pull him back in.

“Ares! I think it’s working!” she says excitedly, watching as the beast is forced to uncover his eyes. 

“Excellent. Then keep doing it!” 

“Ohh right, right!” she says, having forgotten herself. She aims again, this time on the upper left.

**_Justice Society Headquarters_ **

The spirit of Trigon was weakening, though John wasn’t focused on that right now. No, his eyes were attached to Zee as she eagerly tried to solve the puzzle box. “This...this is so confusing!” she shouts out in frustration.

“I know Zee but trust me, you’ll…”.

“HE’S DECEIVING YOU ZATANNA!” Trigon screams, his visage fading. Another arrow notches itself in his physical eye at that moment, and the spirit is forced back even more as the chain tightens. “Kill Raina! Free me...you do not want what’s in that box. I promise you it is nothing but...AHHHHH!” 

Nobody saw it from that room, but in that moment Adriane lands the last two arrows in the remainder of Trigon’s eyes. His mammoth body falls to the ground from the pain, and from this position the portal begins to pull him back in. 

“KILL HER NOW! NOW!”

Zee didn’t know what to do, and she looks confusedly back from Raina to the box. She was indecisive. Two promises were before her, and one was false. ‘Which one? Which one?’ she panics. The choice is made for her as her fingers, which kept working their way around the box despite her inner conflict, click upon the right combination to open it. 

“NOOOOOO!”

Trigon screams as his astral projection dissipates, and his body is pulled back through the portal at the beach, his army of demons joining him. The Amazons were thrilled, beyond thrilled and they all hailed Adriane and Ares as they passed overhead, thanking them for delivering such a victory.

The war was still waging back in the Justice Society barracks, and that was quickly coming to an end. Zee drops the Lament configuration as it begins to emit static electricity, the box itself twisting and turning all sorts of ways.

The room was changing, and there was a heaviness that could be felt as mist fills it. “John what’s happening!?” Zee shouts, though the exorcist doesn’t pay any attention to her. “Close your eyes Mari! Garfield, Raina, you too. This ain’t gonna be pleasant mate!”

Zee was aghast and enraged, and she makes to step towards John. “What did you do!?”

Before she is able to lay a hand on him, a hooked chain comes out of the darkness that had formed on the opposite side of the room and it impales itself through her arm. She screams in pain as it pulls her backwards away from the three bound people.

“I’m sorry Zee” John says, meaning every word. “This is the last thing I wanted for you”.

She isn’t able to speak as another chain ricochets out and through her free arm, causing her more pain as the two chains tighten, pulling her back. “AHHHHH!”.

“Mmm..such delightful screams you have my dear…”.

A figure emerges from the shadows, and he easily strikes horror into everyone who gazes upon him. Pins were stuck in neat and even intervals atop his head, and his chest, the parts exposed by the black leather suit he wore, was dessicated and scared, the blood weeping freely in a never ending river.

He roughly grasps the girl by her hair and turns her, causing the hooks and chains attached to her flesh to pull tighter and making her scream even more. The man was unmoved, and indeed he seemed to derive pleasure from such sounds.    
  


“E..e..rf e….” Zee sobs out, trying to use one of her spells to disentangle her from the her painful bindings. The leather clad man was quicker though, and he retracts something from his suit, a painful looking contraption with a spike on the end. He presses it against Zee’s mouth, the spike pressing itself through her tongue and into the bottom of her mouth. She sobs and screams in pain, though it’s much more muffled now.

John turns away, trying to remind himself that Zee had brought this all down upon herself. The other man ignores them for the moment and kneels down to look Zatanna in the eyes. “There is no escaping this little witch.You opened the box...now you must come with me, taste my pleasures”. A tear rolls down her cheek and reaches a finger up to collect it. Slowly he brings his finger back to his face, studying the tear before licking it off his finger.

His head goes back in almost orgiastic ecstasy. “Such exquisite pain…though it is merely a specter of what you will experience and come to love and even demand”.

The man stands and shakes in excitement, though he remains stoic otherwise. “We have such sights to show you”.

The chains tighten even more and Zee is pulled back onto the floor next to Raina who looks at her fearfully. Zee’s eyes land on John’s and he can’t help but shed a tear himself, knowing what was going to happen to her. 

A second later, the chains pull her away into the darkness, and her muffled screams could be heard for a long time until they disappear entirely. For that, John was thankful. Zee’s screams would haunt him for the rest of his life already.

The other man is still left there, and he turns to John, a light wry smile on his face that disappears in the time it takes a candle to flicker. “Constantine…”.

“Pinhead”.

“I prefer Hell Priest” the man says.

“Alright...Pinhead…”.

“Ohh such spirit...how I wish I could take you back to our land of dark pleasures”. The man advances on the British exorcist though he comes no closer than a few inches. Garfield was in shock at the man, wondering how he could even walk with so much damage inflicted to him.

  
“Who...who are you?”

The Hell Priest turns to the green boy and simply says one word. “Pain”.

With that he turns and walks towards where the Lament Configuration had been dropped by Zatanna. He reaches down and picks it up, his lifeless and deft fingers working on replacing the parts that had been put out of place. “Desire opens the box…” he says, turning back to John. “Is that why you tricked the girl? Her desire for the true forbidden knowledge would most certainly doom her and indeed did”. He stops to study the box, though he knew every detail. “Such a beautiful tool…”

“I didn’t have a choice…”.

“That is what they all say” the man says while studying the box. “However, perhaps she will one day thank you. After all, you have led her to a world of endless pleasure, pleasures that humanity hides their lust for beneath a veneer of morality. Flesh is the only true matter of any importance”.

“Save it mate” John says, feeling the bindings weaken as Zee’s latent energy disappears from this plane. “I’ve heard it all before. I ain’t buying”.

“Pity” the Hell Priest bemoans as he looks out over the other three. “You all are so delectable. The things I could do with your flesh….hmm...perhaps..one day”.

With that the box begins to spark again, and in a moment the horrifying man is gone, and so is the puzzle box that summoned him.

Vixen falls to the floor first, followed by John and Garfield, the green boy rushing to Raina’s side himself. “Raina, Raina, are you okay?”

The girl wastes no time in throwing herself into the boys arms, crying at all she’d experienced. In the distance a light bulb explodes, but nobody can summon the energy it would take to care for such a triviality. Upon seeing her wounds and recognizing her need for comfort, Garfield turns into a dog, a green German shepard and begins to lick at them, counting on the light healing effects of a dog’s lick to give her some quick and rudimentary medical treatment.

There were so many cuts and he eagerly tries to get them all while Raina pulls him closer and sobs into his fur.

Vixen meanwhile was looking at John who remained kneeling on the floor. “John...baby...are you…?”

  
She decides not to ask as the destroyed look on the man’s face said it all. She throws her arms around him and hugs him tight, not sure of what to make of anything that had just happened before her. It was all so frightening and confusing, as many things in John’s world undoubtedly was.

He grasps her tight and she feels his silent and warm tears against her shoulder. “I failed her again Mari...I...I…”.

“Shh...baby no, no. She made her decisions John. She did and we all saw it. You saved Raina and all of us really. You’re a hero”.

“I don’t feel like one...I...I...feel like a monster”.

“Shh, shh baby it’ll be alright. It’ll be alright”.

There was nothing she could say to him that would relieve his suffering and she knew it. He just needed someone to hold him, and she wanted to be that person. He latches onto her and falls apart in a way he’d never let anyone ever seen him fall apart.

They’d won though, and that was something. 

Fortress Gotham would live to see another day.

**_Back at the Beach_ **

Ares brings Pegasus to a landing and grasps Adriane by the waist, helping her down before he himself jumps off. The other Amazons quickly surround them, clapping them each on the back and partaking in war cries that split the cool night air. 

They had all forgotten that Ares was Ares, and now saw him as nothing more than a warrior who’d assisted them time and time again.

“Settle down Amazons. Decorum!” Adriane shouts, getting them to listen as their innate obedience to authority kicks in. She wanted to speak to them, congratulate them on a battle well fought but those desires are quashed by the sight of some of the defenders walking down the beach toward them.

The leader was a gruff looking man who had a military bearing that was more in line with someone who had seen many wars. A veteran.

A fellow soldier.

He stops in front of the Amazons with his small squad of men, each carrying a weapon of some kind. “Who the hell are you?”

“A thank you would be the appropriate response first mortal” Ares warns before Adriane steps forward, wanting to keep this interaction as peaceful as possible. “I am Adriane, general of the remaining Amazons. This is Ares, god of war, and these…” she uses her hands to gesture out at the other Amazons. “Are my sisters. We have come to aid Gotham in her war against the tyrant Superman”.

The solider nods and reaches into his pocket, retracting a cigarette and lighting it. He takes a puff before responding. “Sgt. Frank Rock. Gotham army. Thanks for the assist”.

He turns and looks back at his men. “These are my dogfaces. Easy company”.

“Battle hardened warriors I see” Adriane compliments. “Yup. Iraq, Afghanistan and now? Gotham. As you can see that thing we just took down wasn’t Superman and we aren’t sure what it was but it did do a number on that wall. The wall is the only thing keeping us safe” he explains.

“We saw that” she says, not wanting to seem rude by letting him know that what he was telling her wasn’t new information. 

He looks towards the beached triremes, the transport they used for their attack. “Those important to you?”

“Not necessarily”.

“Good because we gotta fall back into the city. Think your sisters can keep covering the gap with my men while you and me go and have a talk with top?”

“Who is this...top you speak of?” Adriane asks. “Kind of our general. Bald guy by the name of Luthor. He set all these defenses up”.

“Will he be able to explain to us the situation?”

“Yeah I’d say so”.

  
She looks at Ares who nods, urging her on. “Good. Take us too him. I want to know how we can kill this tyrant Superman and warn him of yet another threat on its way to Gotham”.

“Well pile on the bodies I guess” he says. “Ain’t nothing easy in easy company”.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little lighter. I feel like the story is missing fluff and I want to put some more fluff back in it. So that's what I'm doing lol. Blackfire's segment can maybe bother some people because of the themes so just warning with that.

**_Justice League Reformed Forward Camp_ **

“I want answers dammit!”

Superman slamming his fist down onto the table startled all of his remaining allies which were assembled around it. Hawkgirl tried to remain stoic, but the glimmer of fear one could see in her eyes gave her away. Grodd sat beside her, still nursing a broken arm and a bandage covered face after Blackfire’s escape.

Others were in the room as well though. 

Diana stayed off the side, trying to fight the twitches and spasms that threatened to overtake her. She looks at each of her former comrades as if they were nothing more than meals waiting to be eaten, which of course they were.

‘Have to find a way to make Superman vulnerable’ she thinks to herself, unsure if she’d truly be able to wait for Tantalus to feast upon the man and the others. Her eyes turn to these “others” and she goes over a quick inventory of their powers and abilities.

Barry Allen. The Flash.

It was clear that he was quickly growing uncomfortable with the way the League did things. His ability to use super speed though? That would come in handy. Beside him was Roy Harper, The Green Arrow’s replacement “Red Arrow”. Diana couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that. ‘How original’.

He was nothing but a cocky boy playing at being a vigilante to her, and she most assuredly didn’t like how his eyes roved over her. 

Aside from that? Relatively unknown metahumans scattered the rank and file, but none that were worthy of attention or access to this room. Diana begins to pick at the skin on her arm nervously, wanting to bite into the Kryptonian’s neck at that moment. Only the knowledge that her teeth would break instantly keeps her from doing so.

“How the hell did Blackfire escape?”

For this question he turns to Grodd, though the telepathic ape stutters in fear, not having an answer. Well, at least not one that the dictator would find acceptable. “I was...unprepared for her strength Superman”.

The man glares into the telepathic primate with undisguised rage. “What use are you then?” he asks, causing panic to well up within Grodd while he tries to escape. Superman was much quicker though, and in the blink of an eye he has advanced halfway across the room and was now holding Grodd up by his neck.

The gorilla struggled but it was ultimately meaningless, like struggling against time itself. Superman was unmoved by the pain registering on his comrade’s face. “Do you realize how hard it is to find someone like me?” he asks calmly, an emotion that contrasted horrifyingly with the situation playing out before them.

Grodd couldn’t answer. His windpipe was too crushed for him to do so.

Superman lets go, suddenly letting him drop to the floor where he deeply inhales the oxygen surrounding him, trying to come back to the land of the conscious. Clark ignores him and turns to the rest in the room. “Komand’r is in Gotham. Under Lex’s protection”. He couldn’t help but grip his fingers together into a fist, almost drawing blood as his rage overtakes him.

“Our first priority is to secure her”.

“I thought we were taking Gotham?” asks Barry Allen, curious as to why this, Komand’r, was so important. “We are Barry, we are” Superman says trying to placate one of the few he truly considered a friend, though not an equal.

“Who is she anyway?”.

“The mother of his child” Grodd explains, moving back into his seat, still cowed at the raw show of power that had put him out of commission for a few moments. He knew that more awaited him if he failed again, and the warning glare from his leader cemented that fear. 

“Woah...when did all this happen?”

“While you were in Russia. It’s not important. What is important is getting her…” Clark continues before Barry interrupts him again. “How did she get into Gotham? And why did you say she’s under Luthor’s protection? Also, a baby? When the hell…”.

“Barry enough” Shayera says to the speedster, not wishing for any more violent confrontation. The Flash turns to her and glares for a moment, realizing that it was just one of those times where they weren’t allowed to ask any question. He was getting tired of those times, and his morals? They were stretched to the limits.

He didn’t know how much more they could be pushed back without breaking completely. 

“Thank you Shayera. I’ll explain soon Barry, but just know, for the future of the planet, my child is vastly important”.

“Hmm”.

It was becoming increasingly hard for Barry to be cowed by the man of steel. It was something that would have to be watched closely by Clark himself.

Still, they had to move on. “What do we know about what happened last night?”

“Some giant red monster appeared, tore open a hole in the wall and tried to destroy Gotham” Red Arrow says, twirling a knife in his hand. “Then a bunch of warrior women showed up and kicked its ass. What else is there to know?”

“I need to know how this Trigon character even got here” Clark says, beyond exasperated by the man who was more annoying and less qualified than his adoptive father, which was truly saying something. “And why the hell aren’t Zatanna or Doctor Fate here?”

“Nobody has seen them Clark...they disappeared”.

“Maybe they ran off together and got married”.

“Stop being so ridiculous you child”.

“You overgrown lab monk…”.

“ENOUGH!” 

Superman felt as if he was being pushed to the edge more and more and he was shaking in his rage. He needed to focus. Focus more than anything on how to crack open the ripe nut that was Gotham city. “Diana” he says suddenly, turning to the woman and causing her to jump from the quick shock of it. “What?” 

“You told me the Amazons and Hippolyta were going to be coming for us” he explains, taking note of her discomfort. “They got here right after you. Anything you can tell me about them?”

“I...I...well, aside from their training being the source of their perfection? Not much” she explains. “Our soldiers weapons would make mincemeat of them for sure though. All we need to do is attack and I think they’d crumble under the weight of the casualties inflicted”.

  
She was on the verge of salivating at imaging a pile of her former sisters laid out on the field before her, ready to be consumed. It was a delicious thought, and one that stayed with her entirety too long. 

  
“They seem to have thrown their lot in with the defenders of Gotham though” Superman says, uncertain of the woman’s point. “Traitors” she says aloud. “They’d rather serve and lick the boots of men then actually seize control of the world as was their destiny and birth right”.

Everyone was paused a bit by the fire in the woman’s voice, and each took notice of how something seemed...off with Wonder Woman.

“Diana...are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” she snaps, throwing off Barry’s concern angrily. She calms though, trying to remind herself that Tantalus needed her calm. “I’m sorry Barry. I shouldn’t have snapped but...I’m fine. What about Doctor Fate and Zatanna?” she asks, wanting to turn the conversation back to what was most interesting to her at that moment.

‘If I can get even one of their powers, perhaps that will be all that is needed’.

She was thinking of ways to seduce Fate, easily enough accomplished. Part of her would regret if she had to eat one of her self titled furies. After all, a changed Zatanna would be a force to contend with.

Everyone was once again focused on the quandary of where their magic users had gone and that pleased Diana. “Wherever they are, we need to find them. The best bet for us to start looking is by the breach in the wall” Superman says. “I have a feeling that they might’ve even summoned that monster we saw”.

“If you find their bodies bring them back!” Diana says eagerly, wanting them to be alive as she simply enjoyed that more, but needing the bodies regardless.

“For...burial” she adds, trying to cap off any discomfort. It didn’t work and the remaining leaguers were even more suspicious of her, Shayera and Barry especially.

“We must respect our fallen comrades”.

Superman was nonplussed though he truly didn’t care about burying the bodies if it came to that. All that really mattered to him was the fact that if they were truly dead, that would leave his magical reserves neutered. ‘And they still have Constantine and now that Russian witch too’.

“We need answers to all sorts of questions and we need to act while Gotham is still off balance, which undoubtedly they are right now. So, let’s gather intel and move”.

That was taken as their dismissal, and they get up to leave, partly enjoying the fact that they were able to get out of the man of steel’s presence.

Right now? They had bigger things to focus on. Like how one city was proving to be more difficult to overcome than the entire free world. Soon, something had to give, and it was clear that Superman was ramping up for the force that would make it give. 

The question was….when?

**_Justice Society Headquarters_ **

Vixen sat alone, trying to relax after the events of last night. It was hard though, and the horror that she’d witnessed kept going through her mind. John himself was resting, needing his sleep to restore his sanity and also his reserves of magic.    
  
As soon as he was out, she pressed a kiss to his forehead and smiled, remembering his words about having feelings for her, regardless of the other events that happened last night. She couldn’t get that out of her head, and after ensuring that everyone involved was okay, and adding her report to the pile already going to Luthor she went to the main atrium and sat in one of the chairs.

The society headquarters was a flurry of activity at nearly all times, but especially today. Heroes and auxiliaries, mostly soldiers, came in and out from patrols. There were many familiar faces, though none seemed in a mood to approach the super model.

Except one. 

“Hallo Mari”.

She smiles widely and turns to see the Norwegian standing there, as usual brightening her mood. “Hey back atcha’ Tora”.

The woman takes up a chair next to Mari and it was clear from her body language that she was tired. “Out on patrol?”

“Ja. Covering the soldater as they try and fix the wall”.

“And the Amazons?”

Ice nods. “Ja, they were there too. They are very intens though I have heard they have been through much so I wouldn’t judge too hardt”.

“We’ve all been through alot”.

Tora senses the sadness in the woman’s voice and reaches out to rub her shoulder. Mari appreciates it, but even this gentle friendly touch wasn’t enough to lift her spirits. ‘I think I’m in love with John…’ she admits mentally. ‘But I’m afraid of him and the world he lives in’.

More men walked in, leg by Giganta and Plastic Man, the two newest members of the team. Nobody had thought much of them until recently when Giganta managed to smack an attack helicopter out of the sky and Eel managed to save the crew by jumping from his wife’s shoulder into the helicopter, grabbing them, and then expanding his own body into a makeshift helicopter. 

That was a few more of the regime’s men, as the Gothamites were beginning to call the Justice League, in custody. 

Needless to say the act of valor earned the couple quite a bit of respect. Behind them followed Beast Boy and Hawkman, the older Thanagarian having become somewhat of a mentor as of late to the younger hero. He clapped him on his shoulder and gestured to the side, moving off to sit as the green boy moved forward, waving goodbye.

Carter, or Katar as he would be called on Thanagar, sat down and worked on cleaning his mace which was flecked with bits of mud.    
  
Mari looks up and notices that Tora was watching him, a smile on her face. The black woman nudges her, gaining her attention. “You should go and tell him how you feel”.

“Hva?! I...nei, nei, is not a good idea…”.

“Why not ?” Mari asks inquisitively. “He’s handsome, brave. Really kind. I mean look at how he’s been helping Garfield through everything?”

The uncertainty was still on Tora’s face and her friend waited for her to voice her concerns, eager to pick them apart and prod the girl into action. “He...he’s married”.

“He left her and for good reason in my opinion” she says. “Tora, he’s obviously a good man with a good head on his shoulders. He’s really sweet to you”. Mari stops to look around, making sure that nobody was listening in. “When nobody is looking, he watches you”.

  
Tora was instantly interested in that fact.    
  
“Egentlig?”

“I don’t know what that means but yeah he watches you. A lot. And he smiles. In fact most of the time I see him smile it’s because of you”.

Tora looks back at the man and smiles with a blush, watching as he raises his head to see her watching him. He returns her smile and gives a little wave which she shyly returns. Mari watches the interaction with a knowing smirk.

“Tora...can I be really honest with you?”

“Ja?”

“Go and tell him how you feel, even if you’re afraid of getting hurt and even if you’re scared” Vixen says, her smile dropping as she realizes that she was talking to herself as well. “Because if you don’t, you might wind up regretting it. If you do it might turn into that one special thing that you are ecstatic about the rest of your life. Our lives are short, even shorter now maybe. Go tell him while you can”.

Tora and Mari both digest her words of wisdom before Tora turns to her and leans down to wrap her arms about the other woman’s shoulders.

“Takk skal du ha Mari. You are my...my best friend”.

“Aww that’s sweet, why are you tearing up though?” the woman asks. The Norwegian brushes her tears away and tries to stay calm but her sadness was written easily on her face. “I just...I haven’t had a true venn since Beatriz. Someone to talk to…”.

“Well you can count me your friend anytime and we’ll go get our hair and nails done together and gossip about how Hawkman swept you off your feet but before we can do that? You gotta go talk to him”.

That statement urged the woman on and she walks as steadily over towards the man as she could. Mari stays to watch though her mind was somewhere else. On the exorcist laying in his bed, undoubtedly having nightmares. 

Tora approached Hawkman and placed her hand on his shoulder, though she had his attention as soon as she walks over towards him. She couldn’t tell what the heroine was saying, but it was clear that it was having an effect. Hawkman slowly stood up and his hands go to her waist, pulling her into him tightly. 

When he presses her lips to hers a passing group of soldiers cheered, and neither of them bothered to pay them a single bit of attention. Ice throws her arms around him and leans on the strong warrior for support, her leg going up slightly as the kiss deepens.

Mari lets out a wolf whistle, wanting the girl to know that she was proud of her. ‘I knew it would work out’.

She gets up, seemingly of someone else’s accord and instantly moves down the stairs into the sleeping quarters. She had to talk to John, tell him that he wasn’t the only one with feelings. She closes her eyes and steadies herself, letting her legs move her forward. ‘I have to tell him that I’m afraid too’ she admits. ‘And it’s going to be his job to hold my hand through it all’.

**_Justice Society Briefing Room_ **

“So you’re telling me that Ares, the god of war, doesn’t want to go to war anymore?”

“That is correct Batwoman” the man says while standing beside Adriane. “And umm...if you don’t mind me asking, why the hell not?” That question was harder for the god to answer as he didn’t even really know the answer. He just knew that he was tired of dead bodies. Of blood that made rivers to the sea. 

“I wish to create now…” he explains. “Not destroy”.

Batman and Luthor both looked the god up and down, not sure if they should believe him or not. Adriane though, she felt that case was settled and interferes on Ares’ behalf. “What Ares wishes to do with his life is of none of our concern. Instead we should focus on the fact that he is the only reason we are alive right now”.

“Yeah about that, are there any other Amazons out there?”

Adriane turns to Harvey Dent, the so called President of this Neo Gotham, and tries to explain to him what she had already told the rest. “Yes, though they have been changed. Corrupted”.

“How so?”

She looks down, feeling all the pain close in on her again. It was as if now that they had time to truly reflect the energy had been ripped out of her. She could sense it in her sisters as well.

“Tantalus”.

“Who?” Batwoman asks.

Before Adriane could answer Batman interjects. “The king of Sipylus, modern day Turkey. He was cast into the underworld for trying to serve the flesh of his firstborn son to the gods. His punishment was to forever be deprived of food and water though they were right before his face”.

“Woah...so…”.

“A cannibal king is what he’s turned into” Adriane fumes. “He seduced Diana and twisted her to his ways, though perhaps her corruption started long before. When she failed to convince our Queen Hippolyta to go to war, she turned on her and opened the doors of Tartarus to let him out”.

“And the other Amazons you say were corrupted?”

“By a taste of human flesh Mr. President” she explains, using his title. ‘Strange that he would not rather be king’ she thinks before shaking the strangeness of man’s world away. “Is it a sickness? Like in a zombie movie or something?”

“No Batwoman. As far as we are aware this is something that only affects Amazons though we don’t want to risk trying to find out to the opposite”.

  
Ares steps forward at this point, wanting to fill in the blanks. “When my mother Hera chose the Amazons to be sequestered away, she hoped to keep them free of the so called corruption of man’s world. However, by breaking their code, forcing them to commit one of the ultimate taboos, something Hera saw in a group known as the Scythians, they lost that title. They are lost to their senses and maddened by their lust for flesh”.

“This isn’t good” Harvey says while looking at Batman and Luthor, trying to come up with something. “We have an army of cannibalistic warrior women heading our way”.

“Are you so sure they’ll come to Gotham?”

“Yes” Ares says. “They are still warriors and are brutally dedicated to hunting down and killing the last of their sisters. The only place left for the surviving Amazons to go is here, which is exactly what happened. Tantalus and Diana will both know this”.

“Dammit” Luthor seethes. “This was one of the very last problems we needed. Superman’s army is right outside and yet we’re going to have another here soon”.

“The good thing is that Zatanna Zatara and Doctor Fate have been eliminated” Batman says. “We found Fate’s body outside of the wall. Apparently he was how Zatanna got in”.

“How?” Harvey asks, not following at all.

“You’re going to have to ask Constantine if you want the answer to that as well as the answer to where Zatanna went” Bruce says, not wanting to repeat what the drunken exorcist had reported to him. Luthor and Harvey both get the hint and take the man at his word. “Well...what the hell do we do know? Did he at least get the magical barrier back up?”

“Yes he did, and that should keep Superman at bay as well as his army, however he believes that should the Amazons get here they would be able to cross into Gotham”.

“Great...a feeding frenzy waiting to happen”.

“If it helps Mr. President” Adriane says. “Their weakness is their head. Perhaps if you use your….”. She stops to look over at Ares who leans in and supplies the word. “Rifles! Yes, perhaps if you use your rifles you’ll be able to put many of them down”.

“Hmm...true. True. We have an advantage. But you said that these women gain more power the more they eat right?”

The general of the Amazons nods. 

“Then, if they were already formidable to start with, who’s to say that they aren’t unstoppable now?”

“Because we’ve no choice” Ares growls out firmly as he steps forward. “If we do not stop them here at Gotham, then they will feast upon the entire world and what then? If not now, when? And if not us? Who?”

“Pretty words, but pretty words wont hold back a horde of blood thirsty lunatics” Luthor says. “And the wall took some serious damage in that sector. We’re going to need to fortify it again and simply put? We don’t have the resources to put it anywhere back to where it was before”.

“Can we put more men there?” Batwoman asks.

Luthor turns and gently looks at the woman, having been incredibly soft on her due to the loss that she and her family had sustained. “Unfortunately not Batwoman. The reason I built the wall the way I did was so that I could minimize the amount of men needed at any particular time to man it. We just don’t have the…”.

“We’ll do it”.

The entire room turns to Adriane who had spoken, and she continues to do so as she has their attention. “It is us who failed to honor our covenant with Hera and it is us that has brought this calamity upon you in our desperate need for help. You have taken us behind your walls and shielded us, and for that we are forever grateful. Now it is our turn to pay it back. All we require are sleeping quarters at which we can stay”.

“Do you have enough women to form a phalanx across? And if you do, do you think it’ll be strong enough to hold”.

Luthor got right to the point, not having the time to play patty cake around the actual issue. “We do Mr. Luthor. We do. In fact enough of my sisters have survived as to allow us to work at the wall in shifts”.

“I shall defend it as well”.

“I thought you were done with war Ares?” Harleen asks skeptically.

“It is foolish for a man to melt down his sword and turn it into a plowshare before the time of strife is passed” the god explains. “I will fight this war until it is won and over, and then...I think I shall stay in Gotham city” he says, shocking everyone. “It seems to hold many opportunities and perhaps I shall find my true calling here”.

The room goes quiet, not having expected the god to be so vocal about settling down among mere mortals to find a hobby or job, especially not the famed god of war. “Well...we can discuss all that after. Another issue remains on hand right now. We don’t have any place to put you” Luthor says.

“The underground barracks are full and we’re keeping the buildings above as empty as possible for a reason. We don’t want any civilian casualties. The only place I can think to put you is…”.

The bald man stops suddenly as it occurs to him and he sighs. “Dammit”. He tries to avoid looking at Batman, not at all wanting to give away his identity and knowing that if he did that would be exactly what would happen.

“Yes?” Adriane asks curiously. 

“Wayne Manor has a lot of land around it open” says slowly. “Do you think that you’d be able to build your own camp? Provided with the correct materials?”

“We Amazons are trained warriors who lived on our own island in peace for centuries” Adriane says, placing her hands on her hips defiantly while a crooked smirk graces her lips. “We can most assuredly build our own war camp”.

“Good. I’ll have a discussion with Bruce Wayne about it and see if its feasible. For now is it possible that you share easy company’s quarters with them at the wall? Just until I know”.

“When is the earliest you would be aware of it your suggestion has been approved?”

“Maybe tonight, but I doubt you would want to build it in the dar…”.

“We shall wait until we have word of this Bruce Wayne’s answer” the general says. “Until then we will maintain our guard at the shattered part of the wall. After we know, we will build our camp by torchlight”.

She drove a hard bargain but it was clear that the woman wouldn’t be moved from what she wanted. Lex was still resisting the urge to turn to Batman and Batwoman and apologize, knowing that he had gotten them into yet another situation.

‘Having a bunch of Amazons creeping around the manor grounds wont exactly be the best thing for them’ he thinks before realizing that it was also added security. 

“And where will Ares be st…”.

“With us”.

That was quite unexpected. A man amongst the camp of Amazons? Truly a strange new world. It was clear that the general was quite reliant on the man in many ways, something that they also found odd but were chalking up to just a symptom of the times and their unique situation.

“Well...again, gonna have to run that by Bruce”.

“Well go ahead. We shall wait”.

She stays stock still, and Harvey and Batman share a look, unsure of what she meant. It seemed as if she was going to wait in this very room until word was received that she and her sisters could move onto the grounds of Wayne Manor.

Say what you will about the Amazons, as amazing at making war as they were, they were all quite stubborn.

“One more thing” Luthor asks, coming back to the situation at hand as Batman and Batwoman make to leave. “Who is queen of the Amazons now that this...Hi..”.

“Hippolyta” Adriane says sadly. Ares, almost without even thinking, brings his hand up to the woman’s shoulder and caresses it. The woman’s own hand comes up on instinct over his own, returning the gesture of affection. ‘In times of war, all sisterh...brotherhood is appreciated’ she says to herself, trying to rationalize how she was feeling.

“Ahh...yes. Are you queen now?” 

“No” she explains, pushing Ares’ hand off of her in embarrassment. “Technically Diana is queen, but the surviving Amazons will never acknowledge her as their leader. So...until Hera comes down and selects the new queen...I am their general and nothing more”.

“I see, well, something tells me that you’re a beacon of hope to your sisters regardless of who you are to them” Harvey says standing up. “General Adriane of the Amazons, I want you to know that Gotham stands with you and we thank you for the help you are about to render. We can offer nothing but our sincerest thanks”.

With that he reaches out his hand to the woman who looks down at it like it was diseased but she quickly swallows her lingering distaste of men to take it and grasp it firmly. “Welcome to Gotham...officially. I wish I could say it’s usually nicer than this but...heh, still Gotham”.

She didn’t quite know what to make of that.

**_Living Quarters_ **

Komand’r was unsettled, though that was something she had felt since coming to Earth. Nothing felt right and everything was topsy turvy. Nothing made sense and she didn’t think it ever would. “Klorfbag!” she screams while sitting in her bed, trying to wipe the memories of Superman’s touch away.

_ “Make her a bit more...pleasurable. Eager Grodd” _

“Stop. Stop!” she says to herself.

_ “With ease Kal” _

She sees herself partaking in sex with Superman eagerly, though it was only her body and the most surface aspects of her mind that consented. The rest of her? Her soul, her spirit? They fought tooth and nail against the brain washing.

It hadn’t worked then and she knew she would carry the heavy burden of what had happened with her forever.

She throws her legs over the side of the bed, scattering the blankets over the side of the bed onto the floor and steps out, moving over to the mirror. She looks at her nude body and feels revulsion well up within her. She was beautiful, she knew that, but on Tamaran? She was untouchable. No man would have her, or desire to even think of having her.

‘Freak’ she thinks, remembering the major taunt of her childhood. It makes her want to cry. All her life she’d wanted to be like the others. To fight and love, cry and laugh but she never got that chance. Instead all she had was her tutors who secretly despised her, and the guards meant to keep her out of the public eye.

Her hand slowly moves to her stomach. She was flat and still quite toned now, but soon? She’d show signs of her pregnancy. She didn’t know what to think. On one hand? She’d always wanted to be a mother. To hold a baby boy in her arms and kiss his skinned knees, watch him grow to a point where he didn’t want to be seen around her and even have those terrible years of rebellion.

But not like this.

She couldn’t help but feel ragged and disgusted with herself, though part of her told her that she shouldn’t be. ‘This is Starfire’s doing’ she thinks to herself, crying hot tears at the betrayal that she never saw coming. ‘Even you hated me sister?’

“Knock, knock...I...well, we wanted to check up on you sweetie” a voice calls from the other side, disturbing the Tamaranean for a moment. “One second!” she shouts, moving towards the bed and grasping her robe, a bright purple and clean one to cover her nudity. “Umm..come in?” she calls out meekly as soon as the sash is secured around her waist.

The door creaks open and in steps Batman and Batwoman. “Hey sweetie. Are you...well…”.

Her words trail off as she most assuredly knew the girl wasn’t “alright”. Still, Blackfire appreciated it and nods. “I..thank you for your concern Batwoman”.

“Don’t mention it”. 

The woman was warmer than the man though she could detect the concern in his stance as well. Something about him just screamed protector and father to her, and Batwoman? Well, it was the same. There was a distinctly motherly forwardness the woman seemed to possess.

“Are you getting enough sleep?”

“Yes. Enough food as well thank you”.

Harleen sits on the bed next to her and reaches out for the girl’s hair, stopping midway and pulling back as Blackfire flinches. “I’m sorry sweetie. I didn’t mean to...well..it’s just...you remind me of someone…”.

“Batwoman”.

Bruce knew that this was moving into possibly dangerous waters and he had to stop it, though he didn’t have the heart to harshly rebuke his wife. Harleen gets the memo, and she nods to the man. “I’m sorry Komand’r. I..we should go..”.

She makes to get up before the dark haired girl reaches out for her wrist and before Harleen can stop her throws herself into her arms. Harleen doesn’t take a minute to think of what she should do and instead just hugs the girl close, rubbing her back through the robe. Bruce for his part moves forward as well, a hand added to the girl’s shoulder.

“It’s okay sweetie” Harleen soothes. “It’s okay. You’re safe. I promise. He won’t be able to hurt you anymore okay?”

Slowly Blackfire calms down and stops crying, the woman’s presence being something she hadn’t ever felt. It spoke to her of only one possible thing though.

She slowly backs away and wipes her face free of her tears, lightly smiling.

“You two are parents aren’t you?” she asks, not forgetting how Batman’s hand remained on her shoulder. Batwoman smiles and nods, not afraid to let that fact slip if it would help her. “Yeah. We are. What gave it away?”

“You’re very soft despite your frightening appearance”. The Tamaranean turns her head and pats Batman’s hand, allowing him the chance to retract it as he knows she was okay. Harleen kept her hands about the girl though, not wanting to let go.

“Can I ask you something? As a mother?”

“Anything”.

“A child….is it...what I’m trying to ask is…”.

“You’re wondering if its natural and normal to feel a little detached from the baby inside of you” Harleen supplies, wanting to make it easy on the girl. Blackfire nods, tears leaking out of her eyes again.

“Yes…”.

“I think it’s natural, yes K”.

“But..?”

“I...I don’t want to color your thoughts with my personal bias or ideas on it sweetie”. She reaches up to gently stroke her fingers through the girls hair. “It wouldn’t be fair to do that to you”. 

“Can you tell me what you would do? If...if your children were…”.

Harleen places her hand on her cheek to quiet her and prevent her from saying the words. It was clear that it hurt her to relive her ordeal such as it was and she wanted to prevent her from any further harm. Still..she had to answer her.

Her mind drifts back to her own childhood, and her own mother. 

_ “Ohh Harleen, you little stinker. Come here!” _

_ “Hahahaha! Mommy I love you!” _

_ “I love you too my little angel. With all of my heart”. _

Harleen pulls herself away from the memories of how her mother doted on her, her sister and her brother. Knowing that she and her twin sister were the products of such a violent act? That definitely put a loaded gun on the table, and it was aimed directly at her.

‘What would you do if you had a baby in such a situation?’

She sees her two daughters and can’t help the smile that crosses her face, knowing that it wouldn’t matter to her how they got here in the long run. Taking Blackfire’s hand in between her own, she smiles sadly. “I know that you’ve been through hell sweetie so that’s why I want to ask if you’re sure you want my opinion”.

Bruce remains quiet, somewhat enjoying the easy way that Harleen established a rapport with anyone, be they a patient or not. It really was amazing. “Yes, please…”.

“I think that a baby is precious, no matter what”. Blackfire listens with open eyes and trusting ears, desperately needing to hear her words which seemed so important at this moment. “I don’t think that they’re the sum of their father’s or their mother’s actions. They’re a unique person, new and ready to make their mark on the world. I...I think it’s unfair for me to tell you this but if I were in your shoes I would keep the baby”.

‘Like ou mama kept us sis’.

Blackfire looks down at her stomach, and reaches out to touch it through the robe. “I can’t” she whispers and Harleen nods. “Please...please don’t hate me or…”.

“Shhh sweetie I don’t hate you” she reassures.

“I...I just don’t know if I can love them” she admits. “Not the way they deserve. He or she will be innocent but all I’ll be able to see is him and….what happened. I can’t do that to them. I need them to be loved, even if it isn’t by me”.

Harleen smiles wide at that sentiment and nods along, even Bruce being impressed by the girl’s maturity. “You may not realize it right now honey, but that right there? That in itself is an act of love. You’re already a good mother, even if you decide that you can’t be their mother”.

Harleen gets off the bed and looks at Bruce, nodding to let him know that she understood they had things to do. Still, she had one more gesture to make. Reaching into her belt she pulls out a piece of paper and a pen, writing her own name and number on it, though Komand’r herself wouldn’t know that.

She hands over the paper to the woman who looks at it while holding it between her fingers.

“That’s the name of the warden of Arkham Asylum” she says. “A doctor Harleen Wayne” Harley says. “I’m hoping that maybe she can help you. If you call and want to meet, just tell her that Batwoman told you about her. I think it’ll help to talk to someone”.

“Thank you...for everything”.

“What are friends for?” she teases. “If you need me? Well...I’m around but get Doctor Wayne if you can’t get to me. Trust me”.

She couldn’t help it as she stands over the bed, looking down on the girl. Without thinking she leans in and kisses the top of her head. “You’re gonna be okay”.

She turns and moves from the room quickly, trying to suppress her tears while Batman stays a moment longer, offering his own goodbyes though he was much less articulate than Harleen was. “If you need us...call”.   
  
He pats Blackfire on the shoulder and then follows after his wife and partner, though the first part of that descriptor was more hidden than anything else. Blackfire was left alone, though she felt much better about her situation than she had before. Now? 

She still didn’t know what to do fully.

She stands again and looks at herself in the mirror, rubbing her stomach once more. ‘I don’t blame you, whoever you are’ she thinks. ‘I don’t blame you. But...I don’t know what to do. I will make sure someone takes care of you though. You will be loved. I promise’.

**_Down the Hall_ **

Floyd collapses in the bed, panting and sweating from his utter exhaustion while Barbara rides the last wave of her orgasm down, murring herself while he was sheathed inside of her. Slowly she falls atop him and then to the side, his now flaccid member pulling out of her and releasing some of their combined juices onto his stomach.

He didn’t care. He was much too tired to care.

“Hmm Lawton...you sure make a girl feel special” Barbara teases, raking her fingers up and down his chest. “I second that” Louise says, molding herself to his opposite side. “Well I uhh….I live to please” he chuckles.    
  
“That you do lover” Killer Frost says, tracing a line of chilly kisses that make him shiver up and down his pectorals. Barbara growls possessively and moves in closer, reaching out over his abdomen. “So which one was better?”

“Pfft...we all know the answer Cheetah”.

“I don’t think he likes you more than me Ice Princess...or should I say pillow princess considering you laid back and let him do all the work?”

Louise was about to get up and fight but Deadshot is quicker. He grasps her by the waist and pulls her into himself, kissing her deeply. Cheetah was angered by this until he releases a blushing Louise and turns to Barbara, grasping her chin and pressing his lips against hers. Her claws fall and instead of fighting she kisses back, her tail swaying too and fro. 

Before long it’s over and Floyd has released both of them, falling back onto the bed. “You’re both the best roll in the hay I’ve ever had” he admits, arms crossed behind his head. “Both!” they exclaim angrily at the same time.

“Yup. Like...cool and hot” he admits. 

  
Cheetah was dominant in her lovemaking, prefering to be on top and focusing on obtaining her pleasure by pleasuring him. It wasn’t to say he was passive, but she was definitely dominant. Killer Frost, despite her sometimes prickly persona, was very submissive and loved being pleasured. In his mind it was the perfect mix.

“Now, let’s see which of you two is best at cuddling huh?”

He was learning how to push their buttons in the right way and get them to do what he wanted, and competition? It was one way to do it, and he wouldn’t hesitate, especially if it got him some rest. 

Both women seized the bait, and mold themselves into each of his respective sides. He wraps an arm around both of their waists and pulls them close, smirking at his own ingenuity. ‘Ahh Lawton. You scored big time bud! Two babes! Let’s see if we can keep them’.

Another thought slowly comes to mind, an even dirtier one though it had appeal for other reasons. ‘I wonder if I can get them to kiss each other?’


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is very heavy in one area because it'll have importance later in this story and be much more important in the next arc!

**_The Underworld_ **

Hades was thrown back by the force of the punch delivered to his face by Tantalus, and as he skids across the floor so does his sword and shield. Not that they were much use to the god of the underworld in the first place.

He had grown fat and complacent in his duty and had long ceased any physical training, and it showed. “Ohh Hades...so weak. Stupid”.

Tantalus reaches down and grabs the corpulent god, dragging him upwards and dangling him in the air to continue his taunts. “Like the rest of Olympus”. Hades was scared for the first time in a very long time, and as he looked into Tantalus’ eyes he knew that this was the end for him. “You’ll never win…” Hades squeaks out.

“Ohh? How so?”

The god of the dead continues to struggle in his grip, though he was still able to speak. “Olympus...the other Amazons…”.

“Will fall to us”. Tantalus uses his strength and forces the man over towards the ledge of his living quarters, high up in the air above the legions of the dead. Below them...was a sight of true horror. The Amazons had begun to tear the world of darkness asunder, and no soul was truly safe from them. They plucked the dead from the waters of the River Styx and feasted with reckless abandon. 

The Hechatoncherieres fought but it was in vain. They smashed through the gates that separated their quarters and onto the battlefield, stomping over Amazons and the shades of the dead alike, crushing them beneath their giant feet. The hundred handed ones were truly frightening creatures, and any other foe would’ve fallen at the mere sight of them.

But the numbers were telling.

The warrior women swarmed over them, eager to avenge their fallen sisters by expert sword point, or, more disturbingly, by their own teeth. They bit into the guardians of the titans as if they were nothing more than a school of piranha. The pained roars of the gift heads that accompanied the hundred sets of hands was something to behold.

As more spears imbedded their tips into the flesh of their legs, they fell, one after the other where the masses of women indulged at every bit of their flesh. Hades groaned in fear as the final one fell. “Their power belongs to my Amazons now” Tantalus teases, tossing the man back to slam against his table. 

He lets out a grunt of pain and moans loudly, though pomegranates fall all about him as they are knocked from the bowl. His eyes go wide in remembrance, and quietly he looks up at Tantalus’ back, the cannibal king absorbed in surveying his victory over the land of the dead.

At that moment the champions of Elysium had broken from their slumber and had taken up weapons. They turned on the women, with swords, clubs and axes, and many of them were cleaved in two.

Brave Hercules stood by Perseus, and Theseus and Achilles. The three hundred spartans, led still by their king Leoniadas, formed into a phalanx and pushed back some of the crazed cannibals seeking their flesh.

In the end though, they too were destroyed. Devoured, one by one as their very vigor and spirit were transferred to the ones who feasted upon them. Hades wanted to sob in pity, though he keeps himself as stoic as possible. 

The pomegranates had reminded him of something, or rather someone.

He keeps his voice low, though he utters a single world that would be known forevermore as Hades’ sacrifice. “Glaukopis”. From his pale and lifeless lips the words are uttered, and before his very eyes the owl of Athena appears, silently as if his entrance was tempered by Hades’ whispered plea. The bird tilts his head and looks at the god curiously, having never been summoned before. 

“Tell Olympus that Tantalus has overrun Tartarus and that I am to die” he says, watching the man’s back closely to ensure he wouldn’t turn around just yet and catch him conspiring. “And...tell Persephone...I love her”.

The distraction and indeed lust provided by the bloodshed before him did not long assuage the king from ignoring the man, and upon turning he sees Glaukopis. It takes merely a second for him to piece together what has happened, and he lunges forward, hoping to grab the bird.

He was much too late though, and with the slent flap of his wings and a mournful hoot, the bird is rocketing up through the air, heading to the surface. He wasn’t Hermes, but the message would be delivered easily and quickly enough.

“Why did you do that?”

Tantalus once again lifts Hades by the collar of his toga and glares into his eyes. “Because I love them”.

“You? The one they cast to the very bowels of the Earth? Cut out of their little party high above the heavens? You love them?”

“Yes”.

“Then you are a bigger fool than I thought” Tantalus says, baring his long and sharp teeth to Hades who was now beyond fear. His kingdom had fallen, and he was most likely going to join it soon. He had nothing else to fear. ‘As long as Persephone is safe’ he thinks to himself.

“Perhaps, but I am not the man who will bring down the wrath of Zeus”.

Tantalus says no more and instead lunges forward to bury his teeth in Hades’ shoulder. The man screams out in pain, trying to bat his hands at his attacker in a vain effort to get him off of him. It doesn’t work, though Tantalus does remove his teeth from Hades’ shoulder. However, it was only for him to lunge onto the god’s throat which he thoroughly begins to rip through, egged on by the struggled death rattles that escape the man’s mouth.

Behind him the Amazons were eating up the remnants of the champions who faced them, and soon all that could be heard in the underworld was the incessant drumbeat of flesh tearing and bones cracking. Tartarus was used to being filled with sounds of horror, but nothing quite like this before.

“Diana...we are coming to join you soon beloved” Tantalus says, losing himself further in the meal that the now decidedly dead body of Hades. He could feel the power the god possessed, as limited by age and lack of use that it now was, seeping into his body.

He felt like he himself could take down the gates of Olympus.

He contained himself though, knowing that such an act would be folly. The gods were still strong, perhaps even deceptively so. He needed to bide his time, wait until they had secured the titans and Superman.

‘Speaking of the titans…’ he thinks while looking up towards the gates that the Hecatoncheires had smashed through during their ill fated attack upon his forces. They were the guardians of the dreaded titans, and their leader Cronus most important of all.

Even now, gnawing on Hades’ arm and looking into the dark gaping maw of the prison inside of a prison, he could feel their power calling out to him, like a forbidden nectar. His mind flashes back to the punishment metted out to him by the gods, greedy Zeus who had steadfastly refused the greatest gift he could offer.

Water would recede from him as soon as he reached his mouth down to drink of it, while fruit, the likes of which he had never seen be more delicious in the mortal realm, dangled just out of his reach, always.

There was no such thing here, and he ate and drank plenty. With a smile he forgets his torments and returns to Hades. It was rude to keep a friend waiting for dinner.

Glaukopis however, was moving as rapidly up to heavens as he could, the last words of the lord of the underworld contained within his small fragile body. He would bring Hades’ words to Athena who would then bring them to the rest of the Olympian’s attention.

They already knew of the failure of the Amazons to keep the gates of the underworld barred, but they had no idea as of yet that Tantalus’ forces had moved back into the land of the dead. It was most worrying indeed, and even the owl could sense it.

He rushed as fast as he could, the mighty flap of his wings carrying him forth.

**_The Grounds of Wayne Manor_ **

Danae didn’t know what they were doing here, and Adriane hadn’t saw fit to stop and explain it to her second in command either. It had just been ordered that half of the Amazons were to bring themselves to this are and build a camp from existing materials.

Trees of course were plentiful, and she had set her sisters to work felling them for the wood that would serve as the building materials for their shelter. Others were working on digging ditches, using their spades to claw the dirt from the very Earth.

It was busy work, and that was what infuriated her the most.

‘Such an honor you have given me general’ she seethes mentally, moving some dirt up from before her and depositing it on the side. ‘Your second in command, relegated to building a camp while you and our sisters stand guard with...ARES! A man at your side!’

The god and the general had gotten closer, that much was true and very easily seen. At first she didn’t know what to make of it all, and neither did many of her sisters. Perhaps it was an alliance of necessity? Ares had, after all, proven himself a more than competent fighter. But now? The status bestowed upon him, even if it wasn’t done in name but in action, should have been revoked. 

The Amazons were rudderless away from their home, and the sense of fear and sadness that had been with them ever since the start of Tantalus’ attack returned with a vengeance. She could see it in the eyes of the Amazons. The demoralization. 

They were lost.

‘And Adriane is having war councils with a man as if he was our equal!’

“Hello”.

The voice that interrupted her was not welcome, and in that moment she has someone outside of her sisters to vent her anger on. She looks up to see one of the daughters of the family, a cute little girl with dark hair and blue eyes.

“I’m Martha Wayne. Who are you?”

“Danae of the Amazons”.

“What’s an Amazon?”

She didn’t quite know how to answer that question, but she resolves to do so in a way that might possibly inspire the young girl. ‘Growing up in man’s world, she probably needs to know that there is something else’.

“Warrior women, made stronger by the absence of men and those who would seek to abuse us”.

Martha didn’t exactly know what to make of that and she turns her head before shaking it to the negative. “My daddy is strong” she says simply. “Only because he wishes you to believe so” Danae explains. “He is a coward, like all men. He hides beneath a facade. You do not see as you are his daughter”.

That had the exact opposite effect of what Danae wanted and Martha stamps her feet angrily. “My daddy is Bruce Wayne and he’s the strongest man ever!”. Danae rolls her eyes, dismissive of the little one’s anger. “Hercules was a strong man, yet he only ever hurt those around him. Women especially”.

“Well then my daddy isn’t like him. He’s a good guy. He makes my mommy happy. He’s nice to everyone! And me and Mary, and Nana, and aunt Dinah and Aunt Pamela all love him, and we’re all women so you’re wrong!”

Danae narrows her eyes at the little girl who returned her stare in equal measure, refusing to back down. “The women of man’s world are doomed as well” she says finally, delivering her verdict with solemnity. “As corrupted and useless as the men who have always ruled”.

Martha understood exactly what the warrior woman was saying, and she didn’t like it one bit.

“I am not useless!”

“Yet you worship a man?” Danae accuses. “You believe in his ability to protect you? He will hurt you one day Martha Wayne. I promise. He will fail you”.

Martha’s face twists in rage and she throws herself at the woman, slapping at her face and pulling her hair in a vicious attack that was very unexpected. “TAKE THAT BACK!”

While the attack took Danae by surprise, it didn’t overwhelm her. Martha was, after all, just a six year old girl. “You little witch!” she shouts, not noticing how the Amazons gather around to watch their nominal leader wrestle with the young girl. She throws Martha to the ground, grasping her by the hair long enough to deliver a slap for the temerity of hitting her.

Martha cries out in pain, though not before kicking up into the woman’s stomach and taking some of the air out of her.

“You’re mean!” Martha shouts through her tears.

Danae was about to show her just how mean she could be by pulling her hand back for another slap, a smile on her face at being able to strike out at someone, anything in her time of rage and confusion. She doesn’t get a chance to deliver such a sturdy blow though, as one was landed upon the side of her cheek instead. 

She hadn’t noticed the shadow moving upon her, nor how the fist that was brought back slammed down upon her. Danae had never been hit quite like that before, and she falls back to the ground onto her butt. A tooth was knocked out, and she turned to the side to spit it onto the soil while the Amazons around were in utter shock.

When she turns up to see who her attacker was, she’s shocked to see an older woman with blonde hair standing there, looking over a bruised and scuffled Martha who was now softly crying. “Sweetie pie, are you okay?”

“Na...na..na” the girl sobs, prompting Elise to pull her in tight to her chest before turning and glaring at the Amazon on the ground. “Don’t you even fucking thinkg about getting up! You hear me? DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE TOUCH MY GRANDDAUGHTER!” Elise screams while Alfred rushes up from behind, taking Martha into his arms to allow Elise to counter Danae.

“Or what man’s whore?” Danae says, moving to her feet. Alfred himself was enraged but calming the sobbing little girl was his first priority. “You’ll fight me old woman?” Danae mocks, even some of the other women laughing at that. “No” Elise says darkly. “I’ll fucking kill you”.

The determination in the woman’s eyes almost deterred Danae, almost. She was still an Amazonian warrior and she wouldn’t be talked down to by some old woman. Slowly she moves to her feet, mocking Elise with her eyes. “How? I’m curious. You are nothing but a silly old woman”.

“And you’re nothing but a coward” Elise retorts. “Attacking a little girl. I thought you were an Amazon. You’re supposed to be some hot shit warrior women or something, but all I see are a bunch of vagrants who had to beg my son in law for a place to stay and then attack his daughter”.

That stung their pride as it harkened back to the fact that they’d lost Themyscira and would most likely never be able to return. They were indeed vagrants.

“Whore!” Danae seethes.

“Sounds like you’re jealous. I could only imagine what centuries of not getting a good roggerin’ can do to you, but keep it to yourself. Leave my babies out of this”.

“Who are you to dictate terms to us?” another Amazon pipes in. 

“The head housekeeper. Now, get the fuck back to whatever you bitches were doing. I’m gonna make sure to let your general know just how fucking pathetic of an army she’s got”.

That was the last straw for the woman whose rage was overflowing like a teapot left on the stove too long. She marches forward, ready to rip the woman’s throat out, though to her surprise Elise doesn’t back down and indeed makes to fight back.

They are feet from each other when the shadow of a horse above them interrupts their fight, and both look up to see Pegasus hovering there. His rider was not astride the mythical creature though, as Adriane had dismounted and jumped to the ground between the two women. 

Her eyes were equally filled with righteous anger, a anger she focuses on her nominal second in command who should’ve been a peace maker, not the source of trouble.

“What is going on here?” she demands, casting her gaze at both women in an attempt to seem impartial until she had all the facts.

“This woman has interrupted the construction of our camp and insulted my honor” Danae says, hopeful that Adriane would not take the side of one from man’s world over her own sisters. “The little one attacked me in a fit of rage, and I defended myself before this one struck me, from behind”.

It was a lie of course, or at least a distortion of the truth. 

“Is this true?” Adriane asks, looking at Elise and the crying little girl in Alfred’s arms. Slowly Martha turns, wanting to speak to the general. She points, a little petulantly at Danae and scowls. “I wanted to say hi and called my daddy useless!” she accuses. “And a coward, and she said I was useless too! So I hit her because she’s mean and she was supposed to take it back”.

Elise looks at Martha and moves to her side, brushing her fingers through her hair. “Sweetie...I know she’s a bit….mean woman, but you can’t hit over words okay? Be the bigger woman”.

“But she called daddy a coward”.

“And you know he’s not right?”

Slowly the little girl nods, apparently contrite over her actions. “Exactly. Dumb people say dumb things all the time. You can’t just hit them, as much as you may want to. Still, I’m proud of you for sticking up for your daddy but use your words back” she explains. “You’re smarter than her anyways” Elise spits, looking back over her shoulder.

“And how did it come that you hit her?” Adriane asks, unable to look away from how Elise so gingerly speaks to the girl and teaches her such a monumental lesson. She always notices the look on the girl’s face. She felt guilty for not doing as her grandmother had said. It was something...interesting to see.

Before Danae can speak and get her version, undoubtedly less than truthful or twisted version of events out, Elise speaks. “I saw her hit my granddaughter. And then, when my granddaughter was on the ground? She went to hit her again. I don’t give a damn what she did, nobody, especially not a grown woman who should know better, hits any of my babies”.

She takes Martha from Alfred’s arms and allows the girl to hug her tightly, leaving the rest to Alfred. The British butler walks up to Adriane, fire in his eyes as well. “You and your soldiers are to leave this property. Immediately”.

There was an uproar amongst her sisters, each refusing to believe that a man had dared order their general about. Adriane herself was angered, though it wasn’t with the man before her. No. It was with Danae, whose actions had sullied her own honor and thus Adriane’s as well. ‘We have to make amends. We have nowhere else to go’.

Slowly the general gets to her knee before the trio, causing alarm in her sisters as they realize that she was making the typical Amazonian gesture of apology. She bows her head and begins. “I am sorry for the actions of my sisters and of myself in not being her to corral them. We humbly ask that you allow us to make amends for what we’ve done and how we hurt you”.

“This is ridiculous!” Danae shouts. “I did nothing wrong! I was merely defending my hon…”.

“Then you have failed Danae” Adriane fumes, hating that she had to supplicate herself though she knew it was rightfully that way. “For your honor is practically in tatters. Kneel yourself and beg forgiveness of the sisters you have harmed...and the man”.

“I will do no such thing!”

Adriane had no idea where to go from that, and she looks up at the man who seems to know the situation she was in. Slowly she rises, and moves over towards the other Amazon. “You will apologize. You will beg forgiveness, specifically of our little sister Martha…”.

“She is no sister of ours. She is of man’s world…”.

“Sisters” she calls out to the others, gaining their attention. “Did you finish the blockhouse?”

“Ye..yes Adriane” one calls out. “It was the first to be construct…”.

“Good. Have Danae brought there and have her bound. She is to receive only bread and water until she finds herself in a more intelligent and less arrogant mood”.

“You cannot be serious Adriane?!” Danea screeches.

“As serious as death. You two, escort the prisoner” the general says, pulling two women with spears out of the line of troops behind them. Each saddle up next to Danae, their own guilt at having simply watched the confrontation before welling up within them to cause such obedience to their general.

“Cool your head” Adriane says, trying to conciliatory. 

Danae would do no such thing, but at that moment she has no choice. She turns and allows herself to be led towards the blockhouse, all of the Amazons heaving a breath they didn’t know they’d been holding until that point. Adriane watches as they move off, trying to calm the rolling anger of her own thoughts.

‘All that has happened to us and yet she has to do this?’

She shakes the thought away and turns back to the others, trying to continue the conversation. She smiles at seeing Martha and moves forward. “You are a brave little girl. Taking on an Amazon for your father’s honor like that”.

“She’s a meanie and deserved it” Martha says before a look from Elise cows her. “But...I shouldn’t of hit. I’m sorry”.

Adriane nods and smiles. “No need. Your…”.

“Nana”.

“Yes your nana” Adriane says, the word having been supplied for her. “She is a wise woman. She..she reminds me of an old friend of mine”. Indeed Elise brought images of Hippolyta to mind, the strong and steady queen who always led them with fairness and truth. “And you?” she says, moving back to Martha. “I must apologize to you little sister. Tell me, do you know what an Amazon is?”

The girl nods, apparently not having a very good view of that term. ‘I don’t blame her’.

“A warrior woman”.

“Yes but..it’s supposed to be more” Adriane laughs. “We are supposed to stand for truth and justice, and fight for those less fortunate than ourselves. Which begs the question…” she begins by turning. “Why none of my sisters stood up to defend you?”

The others look down in shame, knowing that it would come to this. They didn’t know exactly why they hadn’t interfered in Danae’s confrontation. Inertia, sadness? Both? Still, they had failed in their sacred duty.

“No answer. Good. No possible answer could justify your failure to hold to our ideals. Four of you, step forward!”

It takes a moment for the four volunteers to do so, each woman looking down at their feet, properly contrite. “The rest of you are to build this camp and then you are to relieve your sisters at their post upon the wall. No sleep and only bare rations for you. Do not fail me there as well”.

The women see that as their dismissal and each move off with renewed vigor, seeing their punishment as rather light for the crime committed but welcoming it anyways. Adriane turns back to Alfred, pleading in her eyes. “Please…”.

“One more chance” the man says. “One”.

“I understand and thank you for the mercy you have shown”. She bows lightly but she isn’t quite finished. There was still the four who had stepped forward, and she would get to their punishment which was to be undertaken as atonement. “Martha, I see something great in you. I cannot explain it but...well, I wish to offer you these four” she gestures. “They will stand guard over you and train you in how to defend yourself the Amazon way which means with honor” she snaps, addressing that last part to the women who shudder as she shouts it.

“You have already defended someone else, indeed with your own life. Your father’s honor and your own are intact”.

“General I am not quite sure…”.

“Alfred, Alfred baby...let the warrior women teach Martha a few things” Elise says, intrigued by what was going on before her. “But Master Bruce…”.

“I’ll smooth things over with Bruce and explain it. What could it hurt? Wanna learn from these women sweetie?” she asks Martha who looks them over. Each return her stare and try to communicate their willingness. “I...well...kind of yeah” she admits, not wanting to be too honest about her desire to be trained.

“Excellent” Adriane says before reaching into her belt and retracting a small dagger. “I also wish to offer you this dagger, a mark of your belonging with us, of being an Amazon yourself”. Martha’s eyes go wide at the view of the shiny weapon, and she reaches out, wanting to take it instantly. “Woah! Woah! Umm...ain’t that a little much, a little too fast?” Elise asks, pulling the pouting girl just out of reach.    
  
“I apologize Elise…” Adriane begins. “It has been so long since we have added a woman to our ranks. It is simply that the young Martha has completed all it takes to show that she belongs among us. She defended someone against a physical force, though it was a matter of honor. She showed honesty and trustworthiness by admitting her own wrongs and apologizing for them. She has all the marks of an Amazon”.

“I...well…”.

“It’s mostly ceremonial” Adriane explains sadly. “Themyscira is gone and only Hera could truly reform us”.

“Ohh..well...yeah...umm...what do you think sweetie?”

Martha’s eyes were focused only on the knife and she bites her lip in desire, wanting to have it more than anything. “I wanna be an Amazon! Her version sounds so much better! I wanna be a hero Nana! I told you, and...if I’m an Amazon..Barbara would definitely be proud of me”.

That hit right at Elise’s heart and she couldn’t help but acquiesce at that point. ‘Well it is mostly ceremonial’ she thinks. “Alright my little Amazon”.

  
Adriane moves in and places the dagger in the girl’s hands, placing her hands over the little digits and invoking a blessing to Hera. “Hera may you watch over our sister and guide her heart in all her battles, be they physical or mental. I invoke your name in welcoming her into my sisterhood, and I personally attach my name to Martha Wayne’s as the one who brings her before you. May she find everlasting favor in your eyes”.

  
With that gone the general steps back, and Martha holds the knife for a moment before Alfred plucks it from her hands. “Alfred! Give it back!”.

The four women instantly draw their spears, looking at Alfred with intent to kill. Adriane had forgotten about that and blushes, lowering the spears with her hands. For his part the British butler remained nonplussed and merely quirks an eyebrow. “I...apologize profusely. That was my fault” Adriane explains. “You see...they are honor bound to protect Martha with their very lives now...and her dagger is...well...part of that”.

“I will simply not allow her to play with it and poke her eye out” Alfred says, standing firm as he turns to Martha. “Now, yes, this is yours, but it shall be put in a display case until you are old enough”.

“Awwww…”.

“I must remind you that puppy dog eyes do not work on me” the man drawls out, though he avoids looking anyways as he knew that they did indeed always work.    
  
“Pfft...okay Alfred”.

“Now..as a reward for your bravery, and your new inauguration as an Amazon” he says, sniffing at the world. “I believe ice cream is in order”.

The little girl’s spirits are instantly raised yet again and she smiles widely. “Yaaaay!”.

Elise hands the struggling little girl over to Alfred, who sets her down on the ground and takes her by the hand, casting one last glance at Adriane and moving off towards the manor. The four women instantly follow, flanking them to the rear and either side.

Alfred stops when he notices, and they instantly stop as well, regimented so well that they could practically stop and turn on a dime. Elise had to maintain a straight face when she gazes upon Alfred’s growing frustration. “Ohh blast it...yet another strange day in the life of Alfred Pennyworth” he says to himself before moving on, a giggling Martha already speaking about telling her family she was an Amazon now.

“What a...strange man”.

“A bit” Elise says, swooning after him. “But he’s perfect for me”.

“Ohh I did not realize that he was your husband”.

“We aren’t married” Elise sighs. ‘Kind of wish we were. Huh. Mrs. Elise Pennyworth’

“Ohh...I apologize. I didn’t realize you were merely lovers”.

“The term is boyfriend/girlfriend toots” she says, not liking the purely physical connotation that the word lovers left. “Ohh, so he is simply a friend?”

“You don’t...of course you don’t. Island for a few thousand years” Elise says. “We’re intimate yes. We go out on dates to places and kiss and everything so...I guess kind of like husband and wife without all the legal paperwork. And we can leave anytime we want but I’d never do it. The gigs too good here” she jokes.

“Ahh”.

Adriane was confused, as confused as she had ever been. ‘They go to places? Because he is her friend? Is it a platonic intimacy? What does she mean by kissing?’

Elise moves back to the manor, an Adriane follows behind her, still wanting to question her a bit. “And these dates. What do you do on them?”   
  


“We talk really. It allows us to really kind of discuss things openly. Sometimes it’s about work or whatnot, mostly about our family”.

“Ahh!”

‘So it’s a war council then? Hmm, I need to convene one with Ares. Perhaps I shall ask if he will be my “boyfriend” as it is called, and we can speak of the war while on one of these so called dates!’

She would speak with him of it soon. Danae could not be trusted, not any longer. And Ares? He had proved himself. 

What a strange world. 

**_Justice Society of America Headquarters_ **

“John...John baby wake up…”.

She gently shook the man, wanting to bring him out of his stupor as she kneeled beside his bed. The blonde exorcist was a hard case, but slowly he ascended into the land of the living. “Mari...is everything okay love?”

Worry was instantly in his voice, and he sits up in his bed while his hands go to her shoulders. “I’m fine John. Everything is fine but...we need to talk”.

“Ohh?”

“Yeah, about what you said the other night...about having feelings for me”.

“Ohh right...right, well love that was ju…”.

She reaches up and places a finger over his lips, shaking her head as she wanted to make this as simple and quick as possible. “Do you love me John?” she asks, looking him deeply in the eyes. “And answer me truthfully. Shake your head yes or no”.

  
She pulls her finger back for a moment, wanting to let him follow her directions though he immediately opens his mouth to speak. “Mari, my world is danger…”. She brings her finger back and silences him with a smoldering look. “I said shake your head yes, or no”.

John returns her look and gives into her demands. His head moves up and down, affirming his answer. Vixen could only smile in utter joy at that. “Good. Because I love you too”.

She stands up and moves away from the bed, her hands going to the upper straps of her orange suit. “Mari what are you…”. The words die on his lips as she pulls the straps off of her shoulder and brings them down, exposing her breasts and toned stomach to the man. She blushes as his eyes rove over the full round orbs, drinking in the dark beauty. She continues to push downwards until she had to bend over to continue the downward trajectory. 

  
His eyes move to her thighs and legs and he feels his breath grow ragged with desire. When she kicks off the remnants of her puddled at her feet garments, she stands again, allowing John to get a full view of her naked body. He admires it all, moving from her blushing face and bright eyes down to her womanhood, a small thatch of dark hair right above it. “Open the blankets up” she says and moves her hands under her chest. “It’s cold”.

John watches as her nipples become erect and can’t suppress a smile. “I see that Vixen”.

“Pfft...shut up and let me in”.

Constantine opens the blanket and invites her into the warm bed, though she makes sure to take a bit of time in doing it. She loves how he watches her, following every sway of her hips like she was the flickering of a candle’s flame. She first puts her palms on the mattress and then, climbs fully in, straddling his waist. He leans up to press his lips against hers while his arms move around her bare lower back, the contrasting skin tones evident in the light.

“Mari...you’re perfect…”.

She doesn’t say anything and instead just brings the blanket over them, hiding their bodies from the outside world and giving her a chance to eagerly explore him back. “And you Mr. Constantine are hiding entirely too much under that trench coat”.

His eyes are drawn to her chest again and she smirks while running her fingers through his hair. She grasps the strands a little firmly before bringing her lips back to his. She teases her tongue along them, begging entrance before opting to simply take what she wanted. Warring with his tongue, it soon turned into a dance and she growled possessively into his mouth when his hands found her rear end.

He groped her orbs ferociously, spreading them and teasing his fingertips along her crack, making her wince in pleasure at the cool air that impacted against her sphincter. “Mari are you…”.

She kisses him again, silencing his protests. She refused to let him try and convince her that they didn’t belong together. Fear wouldn’t keep them apart. “Stop worrying about stupid things and tell me what you like about my body” she teases, leaning into his neck. She kisses the skin there before beginning to run her tongue along his pulse point, following it up by lightly nipping him with her teeth.

He winces in pleasure as she animalistically marks him. “You...you have a magnificent bum” he says, losing himself in a lustful haze. It wasn’t helping that Mari was radiating heat, especially in her crotch which was pressed right against his manhood through his cotton pajama bottoms. “All the better for you to grope. What else?” she asks as one of her hands sneaks down over his belly.    
  
“I...I love your lips”.

“All the better to kiss you with my dear” she says, taking his face in one hand and indeed delivering a fiery kiss right before she plunges her hand into his trousers and grasps him by the base of his cock. Her eyes go wide at feeling how large he was while John just winces. “Ohhh fuck me…” he says.

“I intend too” she giggles, making the man realize he’d spoken aloud. John blushes, not knowing what to say after that, though Mari had a good enough idea. “You want to suck on my tits while I ride you don’t you baby?” she says, pressing her breasts to the man’s face. She bit her lip as he reached up on each side and squeezes them, his fingers teasing over her nipple as his tongue presses against her opposite one.

“You read my mind love”.

“Mmm….god yes John…” she moans while working on getting his pants off. He helps by lifting his hips, allowing her to easier slide the fabric off of him. When it got to far down for her to continue, he shimmies it the rest of the way down with his legs, the last thing he wanted to focus on being his clothes. 

As soon as his cock was freed from the confines of the fabric that held it in, it springs up and lands right against Vixen’s womanly lips, practically hot dogging between her labia. “Ohhhh….” she moans. “You’re so fucking big baby”.

“All the better to fuck you with” he teases, continuing on with her wordplay from before. She moans and rubs herself against him, soaking his member with her excitement and effectively lubing up the exorcist. 

“If you...don’t do it soon...I might scream” she moans, her hands palms down on his chest as he moves his hands away from her breasts for a moment to reposition himself at her entrance. His head teases her lips, gently dipping it into her with a smile as she feels his girth beginning to spread her.

“Love...are you…”.

“John…” she says fiercely. “We are fighting the biggest war mankind has ever fought. I love you, you love me. We can die tomorrow” she says, summing up the situation before forcibly impaling herself upon him, taking his whole member inside of her.

She gasps in a mix of pain and pleasure, collapsing onto his chest as John feels her walls tightly enclose around him. They pulse practically as her muscles begin to massage him ever so softly. “Vixen…”.

“John”.

Slowly she was getting used to him, though it was still a challenge albeit one she eagerly wished to take on. She brings herself up, retracting him just a bit from within her, and then brings herself back down. It was hard...but easier than the first time. ‘We’re just gonna need a lot of practice Mari’ she thinks to herself as John grasps her hips, beginning to thrust into the woman’s warm core. 

“As I was...ohhh...saying!” she says, the last syllable of her sentence coming out much higher in pitch as John’s cock hits her in just the right place. “I refuse...ohhh yeah right there...keep that pace right there..”.

They were moving faster, causing wet sounds of impact as they came together as man and woman. Mari’s juices were all over his crotch and spreading down both of their thighs onto the bed below. Neither cared. “If we do die..tomorrow, or any other day..I want to die knowing we made love”.

She leans down and, nuzzles against him, slamming herself up and down on his hips in tandem with his thrusts. He reaches down to grasp her waist, holding her still in a defiant way. “Puer non parenti” he whispers, and an orange glow covers her body for a moment before dissipating.

“What was that?” she asks curiously.

“Magical contraceptive”. John leans in and then kisses her cheek, licking down her neck in the same way that she had done to him moments before. “I just wanna make sure I can give you the full treatment love”.

“Ohh?”

‘I really want the full treatment’.

“Uhhmm. Now, be a good little kitten and…”.

He doesn’t finish his sentence and instead just uses his grip on her waist to begin rocketing into her without any warning. Their thrusting against one another had stopped for a moment, and John had taken it upon his own initiative to resume it.

She couldn’t move though, as his grasp upon her was just too strong. 

She was like a ragdoll in his grasp, and John was more than content to keep it that way as he worked his hips like a madman. His cock plunged into her like a bar of hot steel, moving through her increasing soaked love tunnel like she was nothing more than a bar of butter. All she could do was moan, vain little attempts made to seize back control didn’t do much either.

Whenever she was about to move her hips, John would plunge halfway out and then ram himself back in, the head of his cock seeming to press at her pleasure button every single time.

He was quite on point. 

Soon she wasn’t the only one sporting an “ugly oncoming orgasm face” as Mari’s walls close around him, anticipating their mutual release and wanting to milk him for everything he had. “Mari…” he moans, releasing on his hands and moving it in front of them.

With a forward grip on her thigh he manages to keep her even more secure, and his thumb reaches out to tease her clitoris, circling it around and press inwards and outwards. He never stayed with one movement, and that was driving her insane.

In fact? It drove her over the edge. 

John hit it first though, apparently being able to keep his pleasure under wraps. He thrusts one final time into her, and she feels his warmth fill her to the brim. He crunches his back a bit, burying his face in her tits and gritting his teeth as he cums, his body delivering his payload naturally and as quickly as possible.

In her not so rational at that moment mind she fears that he was going to fill her up too much with his seed, though she didn’t have any thoughts a moment later as her own orgasm explodes. 

She collapses into the man, spent beyond spent as her walls violently shiver and shake, and indeed her whole body does. John keeps her steady though, and his arms wrap about her back to keep her pinned to him.

He covers her still shaking and quivering form in kisses, wherever her can deliver them. Her sweaty, hair plastered forehead, her shoulder, her clavicle. Mari tries to kiss him back but she was just too exhausted by the force of her orgasm. 

“I...I…”.

“I love you Mari”.

He takes her face between his hands and looks in her eyes. “I’m scared..but...ohh sod it I love you. That’s all”.

He leans in and kisses her softly, the two melding their lips together as if they didn’t have anywhere else to be but right there. “I love you too John”.

The two sigh and try to relax, nuzzling into one another as Mari buries the top of her head in the crook of the exorcist's neck. His arm was around her waist, possessively keeping her against him. The totem roars within her very spirit at that act, feeling as if she found her mate. He couldn’t hear it, but the animal spirits within her? They heard it loud and clear.

“And now I know why your name is Vixen”.

She chuckles to herself, kissing his pectoral. “And I found out that not all British men are uptight and repressed silly nannies”.

“Silly nannies?”

“Yeah, silly nannies”.

John just laughs to himself, shaking his head. “You know, this might be the first time I don’t feel like I want a ciggy”.

“Even if you do please don’t” she says seriously. “It’s bad for my skin” she teases faux vapidly. “Ahh I guess I should quit then if we’re gonna get serious huh?”

“Uhhmm...so you can keep being good for my skin. I do want to return to modeling after this is over you know”.

“Eh it’s alright” he teases. “Don’t think I’ll need them anymore” he says aloud though he was already feeling the very beginnings of a withdrawal. “Why is that?”

He rubs along her side with his hand, gently taking stock of her. “I have a new addiction named Mari McCabe”.

She blushes and rolls her eyes but secretly loves that. “Well, we’ve all gotta have at least one habit”.


	28. Chapter 28

**_The Church of St. Dumas_ **

“Excellent parry Jason! Excellent! Again!”

Jason brought the sword up in his hands, steadying it before him as he charges against the priest who held his own sword. The clang of metal could be heard as the two weapons come together, grating against one another before Jason Blood suddenly drops it away.

The younger man had been attempting to use raw strength against his teacher, pushing his sword closer and closer to the man. For a moment or two it appeared as if it was working and that he was pushing the expert swordsman back.

He knew it was too good to be true.

The dropping of his opponents attack led to him being off balance, and he plunges forward while Father Blood twists to the side. Jason continues to stumble, though he doesn’t fall, only just managing to remain on his feet.

“Ahh, you got a little cocky boy”.

He was having the most fun he’d had in centuries while training Jason and while the boy made a few mistakes now and again, like dropping his guard and opening himself to a rear orientated attack, he was very good.

“Sorry”.

“Don’t be sorry” Blood warns, bringing his sword up to urge the boy on once more. “You’re enemies will not accept an apology. Again”.

Jason nods with determination and once more they charge at each other, parrying and swinging out with the weapons. Jason was fast, owing to his training at Batman’s side, but Blood was supernaturally faster. He kept it fair though, as fair as he could.

He decides to do something that Jason might not expect and goes for a forward assault while also conking back. It was an attempt to divert his attention and draw him into another foolhardy frontal assault.    
  
He pulls it off, but Jason does not react as he expected.

Instead of charging with his sword, he moves forward and uses his body, timing the movement to coincide with Blood’s rearward slide. He knocks into the man and now it was the priest’s turn to try and keep his balance, something he falls to do due to how he positioned his sword.

He falls on his back and lets out an “ooof” of surprise as the air is knocked out of him due to the impact. Jason stood above him, a slight cocky smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. “Hmm...and where did you learn that?”

Jason’s smile falls and instead of gloating as many others might do he simply offers a hand up, something the priest takes gladly. “My mom”.

“Ahh...come, training is over for the day. You’ve bested the old man for now” he teases, knowing that the boy was not ready to assume the mantle of Azrael. Not yet, but soon? Yes. His training was advancing rapidly, and in no time at all he would be ready.

“Have you spoken to them much?”

“Just my sisters really. The kids. The rest? No. I...I’m still angry”.

“What about?”   
  


“Them taking being Robin away from me” he says angrily. “It wasn’t their right to do that. Barbara and I built that costume and built who Robin was. She poured so much of what she was into Robin and…”.

He couldn’t say more as he was beginning to get choked up. Jason understood. He understood all to well what the boy was going through. He reaches out and places a comforting hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Sometimes it is best to move on from what we can no longer have”.

Jason doesn’t answer, lost as he was in his dark thoughts. “Perhaps the most honoring thing you can do for Barbara is to leave the Robin that helped protect this city in the past. In her time”.

“So I just abandon everything we worked for? Everything we built together?” Jason asks angrily. 

“No” Blood soothes. “You just focus on building something else. You move forward onto the next project. She would want that. What do you think she’d say about you becoming Azrael?”

Jason just laughs aloud at the question. “She’d probably laugh at me for becoming a bible thumper or something. Make fun of my “magic sky daddy”, her exact words by the way, and then call me a dungeons and dragons playing nerd for using a sword while also thinking that it was pretty cool and wanting to use it herself”.

Blood laughs to himself at what sounded like a very apt description of the girl who had passed. 

_ “Not exactly one who has passed is she? At least she sleeps not a death that will last”. _

He ignores Etrigan’s voice, not wanting to even think about the horrible sin he’d committed in bringing back Barbara with the Lazarus pit. He’d searched far and wide and cast a net out to try and find her. He couldn’t, though she was somewhere out in the world. 

He couldn’t search her out. Not when the boy needed him.

_ “His rage will be great when he finds out the work you’d done, you’d best prepare, it wont be fun”. _

“Remember her that way my boy. Trust me. It’s easier in the long run”.

“You know about losing people huh? Is that why you became a priest?”

The man’s mind goes back over the centuries he’d lived, and reflects deeply on each one he’d lost. Friends, lovers, allies. He’d hope that with time their memory, and thus the contingent pain, would go away. It hadn’t and in fact it had only grown more with each new face, frozen and cold in death, added to his memory.

“Yes”.

Jason could sense that it was a sore subject, and he didn’t press any further. One look at the time though prompted him into a different action. “Ohh...I better get going. Mom and dad get worried when I’m out late and I can’t just keep using the “I was studying at the library” excuse”.

The boy moves out of Blood’s grasp and collects his bag which had been deposited on the side of the room. “I’ll see you tomorrow for history class Jason”.

“Will do Father. Will do”.

The boy exits up the stairs into the church, making his way out the front door and down to the bus stop where he’d catch the second to last bus to a nearby restaurant where Vic Sage would pick him up. He knew the boy’s regiment and he knew that he didn’t stray from it.

_ “You’re thinking of battles long past, and I can only laugh, for you thought your long war would come to pass. That it would end and you could die, with a friend by your side. But those hopes are gone, a stillborn dream, and is left only the battle’s gleam”. _

He was indeed thinking of a previous battle, and it brought him back to this very city, centuries ago before it was even a city. 

‘Leorblak and Harleigha had to be avenged…’

**_894 A.D. Site of the Former Vinland Settlement_ **

He burst into the longhouse, bloodied and battered but still victorious. The gore that covered his body and armor mostly belonged to that of the Miagani who tried to defend their chieftain. They fell by his sword easily, cleaved in two by the holy man’s blade. 

The doors were broken easily by the force which he used to barge through, powered by his rage as he was. They swung on the rusted hinges before breaking entirely, causing the large oak doors to clatter to the floor.

“Well, well, isn’t this a surprise”.

The voice was much too easily recognizable to the man, and it only angered him more. “Sigurd….”.

  
“Actually it is Kanethakar’thon now” the former kinsmen of Jarl Leorblak says with a smile, standing and moving off of the throne that was once Leorblak’s. The man himself had aged, his hair growing wild and grey and his face grizzled and scarred, undoubtedly from years of war. “You betrayed your kinsmen...your sworn jarl”.

“And became a jarl myself? Why serve a man when you can be the man served?” he teases, gesturing to the scantily clad Miagani women that surrounded his throne. Each one of them sported a large smile, a grimace almost. It looked unnatural and horrifying. Indeed the whole Miagani village sported an unnatural look.    
  
“I don’t know what Loki seidr you have worked here Sigurd, but it ends today”.

“Ahh did you visit the grave of your dear old friend’s?” the man asks, drawing his axe. “I was just curious as to what you thought of their funeral arrangements. After all, it was the best I could do if I was going to deny Leorblak entrance to Valhalla”.

Jason’s hand shakes while he grips his sword, and his desire to run it through the man increased with every moment. “Your dark betrayal is a stain upon what little honor you have Loki born”.

He drops the sword to his side, deciding that a much worse fate should come to the man who had killed his best friends. “Is it my betrayal? Or yours Sir Jason?” the man asks. “After all, if you’d been here maybe they wouldn’t have died. Maybe. Or maybe you would’ve joined them in death? Who really knows? It doesn’t matter”.

  
“It matters to me”.

“What are you going to do Sir Jason? Fight me? Kill me? This tribe loves me. They love me so much they’ve embraced my ways. They’ll avenge me if you strike me down. You’ll die here”.

Jason now has cause to smile, for the man didn’t know. “Half of your village is dead” he explains. “The ones who tried to fight me are anyways. The rest? Scattered into the forest from which they came”.

Sigurd’s eyes squint at him angrily, trying to gauge if he was lying or not. “Come now Sigurd” Jason jokes. “Have you ever seen me lose a fight? And this blood, you know it’s not mine”.

Sigurd Loki Born knows this was most likely true, and his anger and losing some of his most devoted thralls prickles at him. “So, you come here, ruin my fun and are now going to kill me. Is that it Sir Jason the spoil sport?”

Jason responds in a rather unorthodox way. 

He drops his sword.

Sigurd is more than confused as the blade clatters to the ground, not understanding what Jason was going to do. His wives were also confused, and finally able to see, if only for a moment, through the haze that had become their minds.

“I won’t kill you Sigurd”.

Jason looks down and shakes his head in quasi despair, knowing that this wouldn’t be what Leorblak or Harleigha would want. For devastation to be wrought across the land in their names. Still..he couldn’t leave his friend’s spirits unavenged.

“But someone else will”.

He begins to speak, uttering those most unholy of phrases while looking at the awestruck man. “Be gone, be gone oh form of man, bring forth the demon Etrigan”.

Sigurd was admittedly shocked as Jason bursts into flames that cover his body, his shape and shadow being distorted in horrifying ways. Sigurd himself backs up in fear, wanting to find a way out of the longhouse but also being unable to look away.

The flames subside and leave in their place a vision of terror. Etrigan, in all his hellish glory, stands before him, a wry smile on his face that exposes his sharp fangs. “The one who seeks redemption has set me free, a what a boon for me! He hath set himself back, that is fact, but in reward your bones shall crack. I shall roast you upon unholy fire, and pluck your skin from the pyre. For a tasty morsel I do seek out, I can smell yours in my snout!”

Sigurd readies his axe, laughing nervously at what he thinks can only be an apparition before him. “The rhyming...hehehe is really getting on my nerves”.

  
Etrigan simply smiles, deciding to oblige him and not rhyme for the final duration of the man’s life. After all...it was only going to be a few more moments at best.

He steps forward and roars, sealing the doom of Sigurd the Oath Breaker, formerly known as Loki Born. 

There was indeed nothing left of him, nor the village he had stolen from Leorblak by the time it was over, and history would find no grave preserved for posterity belonging to Sigurd. 

As all those who break their word deserve.

**_Wayne Manor, Present Day_ **

Harleen was tired. Beyond tired if she was being honest. This war...this damned war. It was running her ragged. Between Arkham, being Batwoman double time and a mother? Well, let’s just that she wanted her family to take a nice vacation when this was all said and done.

She walks into the kitchen and deposits her pocket book on the table, resolving to put it in its more proper place later less her mother takes the opportunity to scream at her for “leaving a mess”.

She sighs and reaches up, undoing the bun in her hair to let her long blonde locks pool about her shoulders. “Mama? Alfred?” she calls out, receiving no answer. “Dinah? Munchkins?” 

She only hears the silence speak back to her. “Hmmm” she says to herself before stepping out into the hallway.

She looks up and down the empty space, not seeing or hearing anything at all. “Why is it so quiet? Ohh...maybe it’s nap time?” she asks herself, wondering how she could’ve forgotten something so integral to the children’s schedule. ‘Dinah usually handles that though to be fair...dammit..I wish i could’.

She moves into one of the much more open areas of the manor, a place where Bruce took the opportunity to put a few different items on display. Usually they were historical objects that they managed to find in their travels or just Wayne family heirlooms. She never really paid too much attention to them. She passed one display case, in front of which two of the Amazon guards assigned to Martha stood, protecting the dagger that was a mark of her new sisterhood.

Harleen spares them a glance and smiles before moving on, not thinking anything of it in that moment. It’s only when she’s a few feet away that she stops, a confused expression on her face, and turns back.

“Umm...who the hell are you? And what are you doing in my house?”

She was on the defensive and ready to fight if the need arose. Still, she didn’t like the look of those long spears that they held in their hands. One of the woman steps forward and claps her arm across the armor she wore over her chest. “I am Nubia, one of the guards that are meant to protect the dagger of our sister, Martha Wayne”.

“Uhh...I’m here mama and I don’t remember popping out no seven foot tall warrior so you have a few seconds to explain what the hell is goi…”.

“Harleen” Elise says, moving into the hallway and trying to stop the oncoming fight that was brewing. “Mama...what’s going on?”

Elise casts a look at the two guards and then the little girl who was following her. “Well um…”.

“Nana almost kicked an Amazons butt mommy!” Martha says excitedly, further confusing Harleen. “Well that’s not exactly true” Elise says before turning back to her daughter. “I sucker punched her but only because she hit Martha!” 

“It was awesome! She lost a tooth and was totally gonna beat her to pulp”.

“Martha sweetie...nana was in serious trouble after that. We’re lucky the general came and saved my bacon when she did”.

“Nuh uh”.

“Yes uh” Elise says, blushing at the faith her granddaughter had in her.

Harleen holds a hand up and shakes her head. “Mama just...tell me what the he...what you mean” she corrects as she sees her daughter watching her. “Why are there Amazons in my house when they’re only supposed to be outside? For one. Two? Why did tall and scary call Martha her sister? And...well I guess those are the only two important questions”.

As usual for this conversation, Martha beats Elise to the punch, the older woman having no idea how to explain the rather crazy situation that had occurred. “Adriane made me an Amazon! And she gave me that knife to show that I was one but nana said I couldn’t have it so then these four Amazons were told to protect me”.

The little girl finished her speech and Harley found that she was none the wiser about the situation before her because of it. “Uhh huh...mom? Can we talk for a moment?”

Elise blushes and nods, knowing that her daughter most certainly wasn’t going to be happy about what was happening. “Ohh are you sure? We can..”.

“Now mama”.

Elise deflates as it was clear that her daughter meant business. ‘Never thought I’d be on the receiving end of that glare. You got that from me by the way sweetie pie’ 

“Okay”.

Harleen turns to the Amazons and gestures towards them. “Is she safe with them?”

Nubia seemed offended by the remark and glares at the girl’s mother. “I would give my life to protect her. I was sworn to this duty by my general. I will not falter as long as I draw breath”. Her sister simply nods in agreement while Martha plops down on the floor between them and begins to play with a toy car.

Harleen opens a side door in the hallway and steps into one of the numerous empty rooms that Wayne Manor hosted. She keeps it open and stands at the door, waiting for her mother to enter. The older woman does, slowly, though she was loosing her fear of being chastised. She wasn’t the one who had the Amazons set up on their property, and she wasn’t the one who surrounded the children with superheroes and expected them to be normal.

Harleen closes the door but leaves it open a crack, just enough to prevent their conversation from being heard but also allowing Harley to quickly get to Martha if the need arose. She hoped to god there wouldn’t be a need.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Harleen seethes.

“I didn’t make her an Amazon!”

“But you let them give her a dagger thingy that puts her in there club didn’t you?”

  
“I didn’t really think it was a big deal?”

“Big deal?!” Harleen’s eyes widen as she asks. “Big deal? You didn’t think letting my daughter start palling around with a bunch of warrior women from Mars was a big deal?”

“Themyscira” Elise corrects, only fueling her daughter’s rage. 

“Might as well be the same thing!” she whispers angrily.

“Sweetie...I know you’re not gonna like this but...she’s going to want to be like you one day” Elise admits. “She already told me that she wants to be like Barbara and make her proud. She wants to be a hero”.

“She’s not gonna be”.

“Why? Because you said so?”

“Yes because I said so” she insists. “Martha, Mary and Jason are all going to live normal and healthy lives”. Harleen knew that this was her fear speaking, but she also knew that her fear was correct in this instance. She couldn’t let her babies go out and do what she did. She just couldn’t. 

“Ahh, and that worked on you didn’t it?”

“I was different” she says while poo pooing her mother’s argument.

“How? Because you had Bruce?”

“Yes because I have Bruce”. Harleen reaches out and takes her mother’s hand, losing her anger at the woman but still needing to make her understand. “Mama, please..we’re doing this so that they don’t have too”.

Elise couldn’t believe she was sticking up for the kids on this, especially as she wanted to wrap them all in bubble wrap and shove them away in a bunker, but she knew that she had to. “Just because you put Joker away today doesn’t mean there wont be someone else just like him tomorrow” Elise says, causing Harleen to stop.

Before the psychiatrist could fight back at her argument Elise hits her with her counter punch. “Sweetie, the world doesn’t just stop being the world you know? Bad guys are always going to be around and no matter how many thugs you punch there’s gonna be another one right after”.

“But…”.

“No buts Harleen” Elise says. “I don’t want them to do it either. I don’t. I don’t even want you and Bruce to do it. I just want us all to build a giant wall around the manor and stay inside. You, me, the kids, Vic and Dinah, Alfred, Bruce and even the Dents. I want everyone safe but...that’s not realistic”.

She sighs before continuing. “What is realistic is that the world is always going to need heroes. People who stand up and do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. You know it, and I know it. If you didn’t want your babies to grow up to be crime fighters? Well, you shouldn’t have have become the Batwoman and married the Batman” she squeezes her hands tightly. “It’s in their genes. It’s who they are. When I used to watch Jason and Barbara…”. 

The old woman stops and tears up at the mention of her deceased granddaughter, and she has to take a moment to collect herself. “I would watch...and I’d be so damn scared. Of them getting hurt or dying...after Barbara did….well, I thought...I thought maybe I would be happy about keeping them away from it but...looking at Jason? I feel like he died a death of his own”.

Harleen hugs her mother close, beginning to cry. “For so long I just saw that there wasn’t much behind those beautiful eyes of his anymore munchkin”.

“He’s gotten better” Harley defends, knowing it to be the truth. ‘But do you really know?’ She asked herself this question because Jason rarely interacted with them anymore. She didn’t hear about his day or know what he was reading anymore. No. She knew that the war had disrupted far more than just the city, and it had come at the worst possible time.

‘Without being Robin? He isn’t near us anymore. If he was still Robin he’d be right beside us and we’d all be together all the time’.

  
She was beginning to regret her decision, but the vision of Jason, kneeling on the ground with Barbara’s body in his hands? The sound of his sobs? Those would never leave her and because of that she could never allow Jason to feel that pain again. She couldn’t.

And Martha and Mary couldn’t either. 

‘No’.

“This isn’t up for debate mom…”.

“She’s going to go out there one day, regardless of if you say yes to it or not. Just like you did” the woman explains in a knowing, motherly tone.

“I don’t want…”.

“We rarely get what we want munchkin. You’re the smart one. Don’t make me have to lay it out for you”. She stops to gesture at the door, or rather the one who was sitting outside of the door. “Let them train her. Teach her. Best case scenario? She becomes a school teacher who can kick ass if the need arises. Worst case? She’s jumping off of buildings next to her parents but now? She’s prepared to do it”.

“I…”.

“You know I’m right”.

“Dammit I do!” Harleen seethes. “But I don’t want you to be. Dammit I...dammit…”.

“I know”.

Elise reaches out and hugs her daughter again, staying close to her as she cries, thoughts of Barbara, the war and the future of her children filling her mind. “Shhhh baby it’s okay. I know you’re mad at me but…”.

“I am but...you’re right. You’re right”.

She turns and looks out of the door at the two women standing guard over her daughter and thinks of all the things she expected her kids to grow up to be. A superhero wasn’t in the top ten surprisingly enough.

“I wanted her to be doctor Martha Wayne or Professor Martha Wayne. Officer Jason Wayne or Detective Barbara Wayne. Doctor Mary Wayne because well...I want my little girls to be doctors okay? That a crime?”

Harleen was using this to cover her uncertainty, and Elise knew that better than anyone. “No. If it makes it any better? I wanted you to be Doctor Quinzel...and you’re Doctor Wayne sooooooo….”.

“Pffft...mama”.

“Do you still love me?”    
  
“Mama! Of course I do!” Harleen says with a laugh.

“So I don’t need to pack my bags?”

“No. You’re staying right here” her daughter teases. “We need someone to clean up after our mess”.

“Good because I didn’t know how I was going to fit Alfred in my suitcase”.

The two women share a laugh and a hug, glad that they could have this kind of rapport with one another that many other mothers and daughters didn’t have. Harley releases her to take another quick peak at the two Amazons.

“They’re pretty scary”.

“Uhhmm and honor bound to your daughter to make up for them watching Danae smack her” Elise seethes. “Danae? Who is she and where the hell can I find her to rip her throat out for touching my daughter?!”

“She’s locked up apparently. The bitch. I knocked her tooth out!”

“I heard and apparently you were about to get your butt kicked” Harleen teases.

“Not if I would’ve had my gun”.

“Pfft...guns don’t solve everything mama” Harleen says tiredly. “Yeah totally. World war two was won with pillow fights and top hats”.

Harleen was focused on her little girl that was playing, and doesn’t respond to her mother in that moment. She just...she wanted to come home, relax for a little and be a mother.

She opens the door and steps out into the hallway, a wide smile on her face. “Hey Martha. Whatcha playin’?” she asks while getting onto her knees. “Bumper cars” the little girls hums out while continuing to look at the little steel vehicles that Alfed had bought her for Christmas.

“And where’s Mary?”

“Sleeping”.

“Ohh...well, can I play with you then?”

The little girl smiled ecstatically, not having had much time to play with either of her parents since the war started. “Yes! Which car do you want?”

And just like that Harleen was lost in the little world of her daughter on the carpet. She couldn’t keep the smile from her face, joy manifesting out of every pore of her body.

For now? She still had her babies, safe in her nest. She had to focus on the not so small, small victories.

**_Lexcorp Munitions Garage_ **

“Why did you bring me here Luthor?”

“Because you’re the only one I can trust Bruce”.

The Metropolis based billionaire reaches out and presses the button on the door panel, leading to a downward trajectory of the elevator cart. “I’ve been developing something to combat Superman” he explains. “Something that...well...I don’t want getting into the wrong hands”.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you remember how every defensive measure this city has is laced with synthetic Kryptonite?”

“Yes” Bruce says, wondering where the man was going with this. “Well, I made that synthetic Kryptonite out of the real stuff”. The elevator stops at the lowest floor of the building, upon which there were many armed guards who eye Bruce warily. 

The two men step off an Bruce follows after Lex unable to contain his curiosity. “This war Bruce...it’s going on too long and with that wall breach? Gotham has been left in a weaker position”.

“We’ve beaten Superman back at every turn”. Bruce wanted to keep his tone low and noncommittal, seeing that things were undoubtedly going to take a strange turn, one that he was unprepared for.

“Until now...yes”.

“What do you mean?”

  
Lex doesn’t answer and instead just leads the man towards a large blast door that was imposing, definitely being meant to keep people out. He pulls out a card from his pocket and presses it over the keypad, unlocking the mechanism. Bruce let’s forth a wry smile.

“Nice lack of security for your there Lex”.

He grimaces in response, not liking how he seemed to be off of his game. “I know. I wanted it to be more but...time is of the essence”. The creaking and roaring of the gates as they separate, opening a passage that Lex eagerly steps inside of. 

“The tunnels? They aren’t going to work”.

“What?” Bruce asks suddenly, remembering that the tunnels had been broadcasted as Gotham’s supreme defensive maneuver, something that could indefinitely extend their resistance.

“Exactly what it sounds like. It’s not going to work. What are we supposed to do? Hide underground until Superman and the League give up? Wither away and die? Neither of us would be willing to accept that Bruce and any man that would? Could scarcely call himself a man at all”.

The long hallway meanders into a room which seemed to house one single display case right in the middle. “Aside from that, the rock composition that protects Gotham? It’s only big enough to support about a quarter of the city’s population at most”.

“You lied then?” Bruce accuses. “You weren’t down her trying to save Gotham. What were you doing then?”

“I didn’t lie” Lex defends himself. “I am saving Gotham, though it isn’t going to be in the way they think”. He turns to the case and presses a button on the side, turning the opaque glass translucent. Bruce is a bit taken aback by what he sees.

“Superman needs to be brought into combat, and defeated. Thoroughly” Lex says. “To that end? I used all the really potent stuff constructing this suit. It will allow the wearer to go toe to toe with the man of steel”.

Bruce looks it over and sees that it was large, a hydraulic system installed to help with many functions such as movement and even opening the suit at the rear. “It’s rather...low tech but I intend to build more in the future. Better ones”.

“So you intend to strap this one and beat Superman?” Bruce asks, admiring how the suit was made of large bulky steel.

“I can’t. And unfortunately neither can anyone else in this city”.

“Why not?”

Lex shrugs in response. “Kryptonite causes cancer in humans at an...advanced rate. Wearing this suit causes a series of tumors to appear withing fifteen minutes of wearing it because of the latent radiation and its...particular origins”.

“Then why even build it?”

“Because there is one man in Gotham City who can wear it if my hypothesis is correct”. Bruce didn’t need to be the greatest detective on Earth to know where this was going. “It’s me”.

“Uhhmm”.

“Because of the chemicals Selina Kyle injected into my body”.

Lex had run a full diagnostic search upon Bruce’s biology when it became clear that he could be trusted. They had previously wanted to study the exact makeup of the toxin flowing through his veins in case there was any medical benefits that could be gained through the study of it, or even a cure.

They hadn’t found anything, but it was clear that Luthor was doing some homework that would possibly save Gotham. “Bruce...you need to be the one to take down Superman”.

“I figured as much”.

“Will you do it?”

Bruce casts a look back at the suit, already imagining the alterations he could make to it to ensure people saw their saviour pushing out Superman. 

“I don’t have a choice”.

“I knew I could count on you”.

“We have to come up with a plan for the rest of the League” Bruce continues on. “A distraction. This suit is bulky, slow. He’ll still have an advantage”.

“That’s why I’ve also been developing handheld rifles that spew out the synthetic Kryptonite” Lex goes on, apparently having thought about every possible avenue. “Someone on the ground will be supporting you. I think it should be someone you trust”.

His mind instantly goes to Harleen, the only woman he ever wanted beside him. But he couldn’t ask her, knowing she’d say yes, to put herself in so much danger. He also wouldn’t ask Vic as doing so leave Wayne Manor without a man, aside from Alfred who needed to take it easy, in case things went wrong. 

“Katana and Hawkman”.

“Are you sure?”

He nods. “Katana is quick and Hawkman is strong. We’re going to need a combination of those two things to keep Superman and anyone else he brings with him off balance”.

Lex nods in understanding. “Okay”.

Bruce continues to look at the suit, wondering indeed how such a battle would be remembered. “Do you have a battle plan already set up?”

“I do”.

“Good. We still have to worry about Tantalus and the Amazons”.

Lex shakes his head. “Please just...don’t remind me about that for right now”.

**_Justice Society of America Cafeteria_ **

She didn’t know why, but mustard had rapidly become her most favorite thing on this planet. She drowned everything she ate, which wasn’t inconsequential, in it. It had gotten to be such a problem that the chefs Luthor had assigned to handle feeding the team of heroes had to have crates and crates of mustard.

She sat alone at the table, resisting the urge to reach across and simply drink the delicious and spicy nectar straight from the bottle. 

“Umm...pardon, is that not a, how would you Americans say...condiment? Da, a condiment”

Blackfire turns her head to see a rather grim looking woman in an immaculate uniform. The only thing askew about her appearance were the bandages on the part of her face where Zatanna had started to cut.

“Ohh umm...I guess? I don’t know what a condiment is”.

“It’s something you put on top of food to add to the taste” Beast Boy says, moving over to the table and sitting down. He had an open honest smile that instantly appealed to Komand'r who couldn’t sense any deceit within his green orbs. Even the grey skinned girl seemed to radiate an outward trustworthiness and calm that helped soothe her tumultuous spirit.

“Ohh...I’m doing it wrong?”

“Nah, eat it how you want I guess. Just wanted to let you know that we usually add a little bit of mustard or ketchup”.

“Americans tend to overpower their food regardless of what they do” Raina adds, taking a seat as well. “But you? You are truly a league of your own da?”

“What does da mean?”

“It means yes in American”.

“English” Gar corrects. “We speak English”.

Raina lets loose a little smile that only reaches the corner of her lips. “I have been to England Garfield. I can assure you that American is a breed of all its own”. Blackfire herself was interested in this new language and turns to Raina with an inquisitive look. “May I learn this Russian you speak of?”

Raina was confused herself but shrugs. “Of course. Anyone can do anything they want if they truly put their minds to it”.

“Ohh, well thank you”.

Blackfire didn’t know why the pep talk was needed, but she was thankful nonetheless for the permission. She takes Raina’s face in her hand to steady the confused and wide eyed girl before pressing her lips to her own.

Raina flails her arms out, utterly shocked and confused at what was going on. Garfield himself was perplexed, and looked on with wide eyes. Komand’r separates after a second and smiles, the basics and peculiarities of Russian coming easily to her. “Privyet, ya Komand’r”.

“Wooooah...you speak Russian now?” Garfield asks, shocked.

“Pochemu chert voz’mi did you kiss me?” Raina asks scandalized, wiping her lips vigorously with a napkin. All she could taste was mustard, and that made her groan. “I hate mustard”.

Blackfire seemed confused herself. “You told me I could learn your language!” 

“Yes by books. How does kissing me make you learn the language of my motherland?”

“Tamaraneans learn new languages by lip contact” Blackfire explains. Gar couldn’t hold it in any longer and he bursts out into laughter, slamming his forehead down on the table and bringing his fist up and down. Raina just pouts, crossing her arms under her chest and turning away with a grimace. 

“I apologize Raina” Blackfire says, having also learned her name through lip contact, before reaching out and placing her hand on the girl’s shoulder. “I did not realize you weren’t aware”. Raina calms and returns the girl’s gaze before glaring at Garfield who was slowly coming back to normal. “Ohh God that was hilarious”.

“Nyet. It was a simple cultural lack of communication and understanding” Raina says as if settling the matter.   
  
“Aww you sure you don’t have a girlfriend now?”

Blackfire smiles at the good natured teasing and can’t help but feel a little better than she had before. “Nyet Garfield. There was nothing romantic about that. Just learning. Besides, it’s clear that she has feelings for you”.

Raina blushes a bright red and looks away, and even Garfield does as well, his smile dropping. He looks towards Raina for a moment and then away, his mind drifting back to Amy and her sacrifice. 

“Ohh...I...I said something I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry. I thought you were aware” Blackfire says, almost on the verge of tears again. ‘Everything goes so wrong!’

She makes to get up. “Pardon me. I…”.

“Nyet, nyet, sit” Raina insists, not wanting the sad girl to leave. Garfield himself had recovered and was working on storing the information he had just learned for use later. He still thought of Amy constantly, and he just...he couldn’t move on. Not yet.

“Yeah stay. No big deal. We’re all friends just poking fun”.

“Friends?” Blackfire asks curiously, never herself having a friend before.

“Da or tovarishchi. Comrades”.

“Ignore her, she’s tense most of the time” the green skinned boy teases. “Most reds are”.

“And most capitalists are dense” Raina teases right back, gaining Blackfire’s interest. “What are reds, and what are capitalists?”   
  


“Eh just two different kinds of political systems” Garfield says. “Basically? They both agree that material goods are the only way to measure the value of human life and progress” Gar rolls his eyes. “Capitalists think the free market does that best. Law of supply and demand and what not. Raina here believes that the state, that doesn’t have a government or anything, best does it”.

Blackfire was beyond confused, not thinking that the workers of Earth’s governments would make sense to her ever. “Comrade Garfield is...muddying the waters. The socialist dialectic practiced by…”.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s clear we lost her Rae. Try and sell her on Marx later huh. For now?” he teases while leaning forward. “I know Igbo, Belgian and French. Wanna learn those languages?” he teases while waggling his eyebrows. It was a juvenile act, meant to communicate the fact that it was a less than serious proposal. Aside from that? She knew that Raina would certainly not appreciate her kissing the green skinned boy.

“Perhaps another time...buddy” she says. “Did I use that right?”

“Yeah you did! See you’re getting the hang of Earth”.

“Da. Soon you will be a regular...valley girl?”

“Gotta be in California for that Rae Rae and nah….hey, that’s rude of us. We never did get your name?”

“Komand’r” Blackfire says. “Princess of Tamaran”.

“Ahh, royalty. We no longer have such things in Russia”.

“A genuine Princess huh?” Gar says, shaking his head. “Well, pauper or princess, welcome to Gotham. Though it is cool you’re a princess. I always wanted a rich friend”.

The laughter and conversation of all three echo throughout the cafeteria for many hours after this.


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Stand By Me" By Ben E. King is the song that I used for Harleen and Bruce's dance. it's also their wedding song.

**_Executive Mansion, Gotham City_ **

Harvey awakens from his sleep, the sharp cries of his newborn son in the crib beside having woken both parents up. “Hold on Harvey baby...it’s...uuuhhhhhh...okay sweetie”. Pamela had yawned in the middle of her statement, showcasing how tired she was.   
  
“I’ve got him babe”.

“Are you sure?”

He nods while sitting up and turning to kiss her cheek. “I am. Get some sleep”. It was clear that that wasn’t going to happen as Pamela was now wide awake. If you looked up the definition of mother hen in the dictionary, a picture of Pamela Dent would come right up. “Bring him back here to lay down with us”.

Harvey throws his legs over the side of the bed and smiles, shaking his head. “Sweetie...one day he’s going to have to get used to sleeping alone someday”. He stands and walks over to the crib, smiling down at the still crying baby. 

“Nuh uh. He’s gonna be a ladies man one day. Like his father” Pamela teases while turning onto her side in the bed. Harvey reaches in and picks up little Harvey by the waist, quickly bringing him in to balance on his chest. “That true buddy? You gonna be a ladies man?” 

The baby was still crying, and thus doesn’t respond to his father’s question. Harvey smells him and quickly feels the diaper to see if he needed to be changed, but it seemed that everything was fine down there in that regard. The baby was crying still, but it was decreasing in intensity as Harvey rocked him and lightly bounced him in his arms. “Good boy”.

“He just wanted some company is all” Pamela says, loving the sight of her husband, the most powerful man in the free world, cuddling their baby and being a father. “Bring him back to bed so I can see him too huh Mr. Hogs the cutest baby in the world”.

The man rolls his eyes and indeed moves back into the bed, setting the baby down between the two of them, moving into the other side quickly to ensure he wouldn’t fall if he rolled away. He struggles a bit, always reacting that way upon hearing his mother’s voice. But it’s remedied by the woman reaching out and taking him against her chest, where he nuzzles into her for the warmth. 

“Mama’s boy”.

Harvey teases but there was no malice or mean spiritedness in his words. He just moves in closer to his wife, far enough away that there was space for the little boy, but close enough as to provide a feeling of added protection.

Harvey Jr. was instantly back to sleep, and Pamela moves gently so that he was gently laying atop her, even scooting up in the bed to provide a more comforting position for him. “He’s so precious”.

“We do make cute babies, that’s for sure”.

She turns to her husband and smiles lightly, the thoughts behind her eyes readable to him as if they were his very own. “I’m still scared Harvey”.

The man leans over and kisses his wife on the forehead. “Don’t be”.

“Pfft...since you told me that I’m sure I’ll be able to stop worrying and come to love the massive army stationed outside of the wall around our city”.

“It is kind of middle ages like isn’t it?” he teases. “Maybe I should apply for king”.

“Yeah, no. No sinking into authoritarian despotism for you Harvey” Pamela says, gently nuzzling her lips against her son’s head. “Why not? You wouldn’t want to be queen Pamela Dent?”

A knock on the door interrupts their conversation and Harvey turns to call out, “who is it?”. He’s swatted by his wife gently upon the shoulder, who gestures towards the baby asleep in her arms. “Mr. President? It’s agent Collins. Your daughter is out here with us. She’s had a nightmare and well…”.

“Send her in please” Pamela calls out nervously, wanting to make sure her little girl was okay. Harvey smirks at her seeming double standard when it came to raising one’s voice, and she could only blush, ensuring that Harvey jr. was still comfortable. The door opens and Harleen moves in, quickly rushing to the side of the bed with her father.

Tears ran down her face, contrasting brightly against her light green skin. “Daddy...I had...I had…”.

He wastes no time in reaching over the bed and picking her up by her waist depositing her in the open space between him and her mother. She latches onto her father instantly, crying into his shirt as he soothes her. “Shhh baby girl it’s okay. What’s wrong?”

“I...I had a bad...dream where…”.

She was close to hyperventilating and Harvey knew that he had to calm her down first if he was going to get a straight answer out of her. “Deep breaths sweetie. Remember the practice we did. Deep breaths”.

It had become clear as a toddler in her terrible twos that “Big Bad Harv” might’ve been passed down to Harleen who always had a bit of a temper. They’d worked hard to nip that in the bud, get her the help that Harvey hadn’t gotten as a child. Her father would sit with her and practice deep breathing, getting her anger and emotions under control.

It worked surprisingly enough.

The little girl begins to do it, her chest rising and falling with every breath she took. “Now” he asks when she seems to finally have calmed down enough. “What was this bad dream of yours?”

“The scary man…”.

He nodded, having figured as much. 

The scary man was her name for Superman. News reports and everyone talking about him all the time had built him up into the boogeyman personified in little Harleen’s mind. “He...he killed you, and mommy and Harvey and uncle Bruce and…”.

“Shhh sweetie. It’s okay. He didn’t, and he wont” Harvey says, his mind working on overtime to try and calm her. He’d heard Luthor’s plan already, and he’d heard from Bruce that he’d agreed to do so. 

_“I won’t kill him”._

_“You might have to”._

His words with Bruce resonated in his mind, and he prayed to God that Bruce would find a way to incapacitate the man without killing him. 

“But what if…”.

“Not buts” he says. “Butts are for chickens”.

The little girl chuckles beside herself, always loving that favorite overused joke from her father. “Daddy, chickens don’t have butts”. 

“Chickens have to have a butt Harleen” Pamela joins in. “How would they poop otherwise?”

“Ewwww…”.

“Yeah, ewww Pamela” Harvey joins in, tickling his daughter’s side and causing her to giggle. “Pfft, what? It’s just a butt”. Harvey yawns and begins to wake up, looking up at his mother with curious eyes. “What do you think baby boy? Does everything have a butt?”

“Plants don’t” Harleen pipes up.   
  
“....huh, I guess that’s true” her mother admits while holding up the now giggling baby who absolutely loved to be suspended in the air. She pushes him up and down, making funny noises and twisting her face into ridiculous expressions as she uses him as a makeshift dumbbell. 

“Do you want to hear a state secret Harleen?”

“Like spy stuff?”

“Uhhmm”. He loved when her eyes lit up so excitedly, a smile on her face as she eagerly nods. “But you can’t tell anyone okay? Not yet. It’s very important”.

The girl moves her hand over her heart and crosses it silently, assuring her father that she would keep whatever he had to tell her a secret. ‘Huh, well she is really good at keeping secrets as it is’ he admits to himself, the girl knowing about the nighttime activities of her extended family.

“Tomorrow….your uncle Bruce and a bunch of friends are going to go out there and kick Superman’s butt”.

“Really?!”

“Not questioning if he has a butt are you?” he smiles.

The girl shakes her head vigorously, giddy in excitement. “He wont after uncle Bruce kicks it off!”

“Damn straight”.

“Harvey…” Ivy chastises lightly.

“Sorry. But yeah...hopefully by tomorrow night this will all be over sweetie. Okay? So don’t you have any more nightmares”.

“But daddy what if he los…”.

He didn’t want that word to even be put in his mind, such was the fear he had of indeed just that scenario coming to pass. He didn’t want the word to have any power. “He won’t. You know why?”

The little girl certainly knew why.

“Because he’s Batman!”

All three said it together and descend into a cacophony of giggles at how in sync there teasing of one of their favorite vigilantes. “So...no more nightmares?”

“Unnuhh”.

“Okay then. Still wanna sleep with mama, Harvey and I tonight?”

“Uhhhuuh”

He strokes his hand through her hair and kisses her forehead. “Okay”.

She snuggles in beside the man and he works at pulling the blankets up over the four of them. “Would you like to hold Harvey for a little while sweetie?”

Harleen’s eyes go wide at her mother’s suggestion and she nods. “If...if it’s okay?”. Pamela could only laugh as she hands over the wide awake baby to his older sister. “Of course it’s okay sweetie. He’s your baby brother”.

Her hands reach out and take the momentarily confused baby whose eyes lock onto his mother in questioning where he was going. But as soon as Harleen has a hold of him, she brings him close and smiles. “Hi Harvey”.

His hands go to her face, plopping down on her cheeks and smooshing downwards, causing both of her parents to laugh. “He likes you Harleen”.

“Well he should…” she says, trying to avoid getting hurt. “I’m his only big sister”.

Harvey watches and reaches out, gently taking Harvey junior’s hands away from Harleen’s cheeks. “Be gentle with people buddy. Gentle”.

Harvey was beyond being taught anything at this moment, as his eyes start to close, a gentle little smile on his face. He lays his head down on his sister’s shoulder and goes to sleep again, not thinking much of anything other than the fact that he was warm and with his family again.

Harleen herself was working on falling asleep, and her eyes close with her arms still securing, but softly, wrapped around her baby brother. Pamela looks down on the two, moving onto her side and making sure that Harvey would be safe while he slept while her husband does the same.

“I never did thank you” he whispers.

“For what?”

“For giving me something as amazing as our family”.

She tilts her head and smiles. “Ohh Harvey...we did this together baby”.

He reaches out for her hand, grasping it in his much larger grip. A kiss is pressed to her knuckles as the man looks at the woman he said “I do” too deeply in the eye. Their enjoined hands lower onto Harvey’s back, their children being the most important things in the world to them.

No more words are said.

They both knew that the die was cast and in the morning?

The war would end.

**_Apartment of Renee Montoya and Tatsu Yamashiro_ **

She kneeled before the shinto shrine in nothing more than her sleep wear, praying to her ancestors and trying to calm the raging waters that were her mind. In the morning she would accompany her Shogun into battle. A battle she was not sure she would come back from.

“What the hell are you thinking?”

That was a voice that she always loved hearing, but one she knew would not calm her spirit. Regardless, she needed to face her.

“I am thinking of what my honor and duty demand of me Renee”.

“You’re not going out there”.

“I must”.

Renee angrily walks across the room and yanks her up by her shoulders, turning her until they were face to face and keeping her hands on said shoulders. “No, you’re fucking not”.

The anger was visible on her face, and if she only saw that the headstrong samurai would’ve lashed out. But it wasn’t the only thing she saw, no.

She saw fear and pain as well.

‘Born out of love for you’.

Tatsu instead slowly brings her hand up to take one of Renee’s, clutching it close to her. “How did you find out Renee?” She had to know. After all, she had been told by Batman that this was supposed to remain a secret operation from the public at large, though the armed forces would know. “That’s seriously what you’re asking me right now? Vete a la mierda!”.

The tears were now streaming down the hispanic woman’s face, and it was even more hard to watch the strong police commissioner break down. “Luthor and Dent told me. Seeing as we’re supposed to keep order while the entire fucking army walks out of the city to fight a war we can’t win!”.

“We aren’t winning now” Tatsu calming retorts. “Not by hiding behind walls and not by cowering. It is dishonorable. I am glad to have been chosen”.

A tear moved out of her own eye at the pain she saw in her lover’s eyes. “Then be dishonorable then dammit!”. She stopped as soon as she said it though. She knew in the end that that would be a death in and of itself to the woman. Tatsu sees that a breakthrough had been made and reaches out to take the woman’s face in her hands.   
  
“Ask a fish to stop swimming, or demand that a bird cease flying”.

Montoya hears her words, but she can’t say anything to them. Not that would’ve swayed the woman.

“I can’t lose you”.

The words were whispered and choked with tears, and that felt like a knife right through the Japanese woman’s heart. She pulls her girlfriend in for a hug, and both remain tied to one another. “I don’t believe that our story ends here Renee”.

The women move to the bed, slowly sitting as Renee falls apart. She clings to Tatsu with a ferocious strength, as if doing so would prevent her from ever leaving. The samurai buries her nose in the woman’s hair, inhaling her freshly showered scent. 

She’d just come off of duty. She’d heard her take a shower after all. It was a routine that repeated itself for every day for six years now.   
  
“I will return to you Renee Montoya” Tatsu goes on. “I must. There is no greater aspiration, no greater honor I could ever gain, that one day asking if I may take your last name”.

“Are you seriously proposing to me right before you go off into a major battle against an alien tyrant bent on world domination?”

She couldn’t help but chuckle, though the sound of her laughter was painted by the force of her tears. Even Tatsu begins to laugh , running her hands up and down the woman’s face. “I suppose I did. I have never been good at these things”.

The two women remain cuddled together, though their laughter soon fades. “I’d be the happiest woman alive to call you my wife Tatsu”.

The samurai smiles and kisses the woman’s lips, gently taking her chin in her hand.

“If I have done anything worth remembering in my life, and should I fall…”. Renee looks away at that, unable to agree with Tatsu’s view of her own death. She slowly brings the woman back to look at her though before continuing. “And should I fall, upon my grave I want only one thing inscribed…”.

She takes a moment to brush a tear away from the woman’s cheek with her thumb. “Tell any passerby, that my heart belonged, and shall continue to do so long after it ceases beating, to the most beautiful woman in the world”.

Renee blushes a bit at that and nuzzles into her touch. 

“If I have done one thing right in my life, it was giving my heart to you”.

The two are quiet, though it was clear that Renee had let out her anger and was now calmer than she had been before. She moves up in the woman’s arms, always having been taller that her lover and now, she supposed, fiancee. “Vamos hacer el amor” she whispers in Tatsu’s ear, keeping her tears hidden by moving into her neck and kissing her. 

Tatsu murrs and wraps her leg around Montoya’s, keeping her close. “Tsuneni”.

**_Wayne Manor, Living Room_ **

“Bruce I don’t understand. Why didn’t you choose me to come out there with you?”

The two men were speaking in front of the fire, though Vic remained standing, angrily pacing back and forth. “Because, in case this all goes wrong, I need another man back here” the billionaire vigilante admits. “Someone I can trust to look at my children as their own and help them. I made the right call didn’t I?” 

That query stops the man in his tracks as he stares down at his best friend.

“I mean, if you were gone, your four little monsters would be safe with Harleen and I” the man smirks. It was always disarming to see him smile, and that was what made Vic Sage sigh and shake his head. “Bruce, of course you could and you can trust me with your kids. Hell we all love them each so much but...dammit”.

“I know Vic. I know”.

The man stands and puts his hand out for Vic to shake. “Don’t think it’s a reflection of how I view your fighting abilities” the man says as Vic moves in and grasps the man’s hand. “It’s a reflection on the fact that I think you’re a good man and a damn fine father”.

“Bruce...I don’t know what to say”.

The Batman just shakes his head. “Don’t say anything. Neither of us is good at words. Just know that I’ve always viewed you and Harvey as brothers Vic. I didn’t get a chance to tell him that so...if…”.

“You’ll tell him after this is all done and Superman is gone” Vic says, cutting him off before he could even give oxygen to the idea that he might lose his battle.

“I’ll tell him then”.

The two go silent, turning back to the roaring fire.   
  
“Have you...talked to everyone else?”

Bruce nods. “Alfred, Elise, Jason, Mary, Martha….”.

“Not Harleen?”

Bruce doesn’t answer, too busy was he by looking into the fire. “I don’t know what to tell her yet Vic”. A voice from the door interrupts the two men. “How about the truth?” They both turn to see said woman standing in the door frame, a look on her face that only hinted at the turmoil roiling beneath the surface. 

“Harleen….”.

“I..uhh...I should go…”.

Vic moves to the door himself, wanting to give the couple time to speak about what was undoubtedly going to be a tough subject for the both of them. When he gets there though, standing besides Harley, he stops and turns to the woman. “It’s going to be okay”.

She gives him a brave smile that has no warmth in it whatsoever, showing the man, who was adept at reading body language, that she was barely holding it together. “Thank you Vic”.

He hugs her tightly before moving off, closing the door behind him to give them some privacy. When the blonde turns back her husband hasn’t moved from the spot beside the fireplace. He looks at her, hurting at seeing her in such a state.

“You leave me for last for any particular reason?” 

She was smiling, jocularly, trying to be in good humor though it was a front. He read her college thesis too many times to not see the tells within her.

“Because you’d be the hardest to tell”.

She shrugs and nods. “I figured”.

She purses her lips and closes her eyes, shaking her head back and forth. “I suppose there’s no chance you’re going to let me swoop in with the batwing and save the day huh?”

“No” he explains. “Already deactivated it. I need you to stay as far away from this battlefield as possible”.

She doesn’t say anything and instead just moves over towards the antique gramophone that the Wayne family had had for...well, generations. She begins to fish through the wax records on the shelf beside it. “You know, it’s funny” she explains. “Everytime we come up against something new, I get like this and say the same thing like, “we’ve never been up against something like this before” and then I turn on the waterworks because I’m afraid...we do follow a script huh puddin’?”

He lets a light smile grace his lips, nodding alone. “We do”.

The woman didn’t seem to hear his answer as she continues to go through the records. “But...we’ve never been up against something that wasn’t human you know?”. Bruce nods. “I know”. He’d begun to slowly move up behind her, wanting to be there for her in anyway she needed. He thought she was beautiful, even then. Wearing a sweater and jeans, her default “mom” look as she called it. 

‘She’s beautiful anytime of day’.

“The guy can shoot freaking laser beams out of his eyes so watch that”.

“I will”.

“And he can lift planets apparently. Smash through them with his fist”.

“I wont let him hit me”.

“You better not”.

The tears were falling down her face now and she was also working hard to hide them from Bruce. ‘Stop it Harleen’ she chastises herself. ‘The last thing Bruce needs right now is you worrying him’.

“I can’t talk you out of fighting him can I?”

Bruce looks down at his feet as if they might have a comforting answer for him to give to the woman that would wipe away all her fears.

They don’t.

“No”.

“I figured. You’re the Batman. It’s what you do”.

“It’s what we do Harleen”. He reaches out for her waist and holds her tight, placing his chin on her shoulder as she tries to distract herself by looking at the records. “Batman wouldn’t be strong if Batwoman wasn’t right there next to him”.

“Then let me do something and be th…”.

“I can only do what needs to be done if I know that my children are still going to have their mother if I don’t make it home”.

It was the first open admission between either of them that wasn’t couched in opaque and hidden terms, the harshness blunted by his hands upon her. “I...I can’t…”.

“We’ve had this conversation before” he stops her with. “We follow a routine remember?”. He stops to kiss the back of her neck. “You can do it. You’re Batwoman Harleen. You can do anything”.

She doesn’t respond to him, as she had apparently found what she was looking for. With a teary smile she pulls the record up and dusts it off. “Huh. I’ll have to scream at Alfred and Mama for not cleaning in here” she teases, faux vapidly while she retracts the wax disk and places it on the wheel, slowly lowering the needle to the song she wanted.

It takes a few seconds but eventually it catches to the song she wanted, and Bruce smiles as soon as the music begins to play. The blonde turns in his arms and wraps her arms about his shoulders while his own go to her waist and raised hand respectively. 

“Been a while since we’ve had time to dance with one another huh?”

“It has” he agrees. 

“When I get back, every night, we’ll dance with one another right before bed”.

“Is that a promise Bruce?”

“It is”.

  
She lays her head on his chest and nuzzles him, trying to commit the sound of his heartbeat to memory. Bruce himself focused on the music as the two swayed together, remembering the first time they’d danced to this song at their wedding.

_“When the night...has come...and the land is dark...and the moon, is the only light we’ll see”._

He twists her about, causing her to laugh as he brings her back in and gently dunks her, standing back up again. “Puddin’!” she giggles, forgetting her sadness for a moment. “Still got it?”

She moves back into him and nods at his question while kissing his jawline. “You never lost it”.

_“No I wont...be afraid, no I wonnnnt be afraid, just as long...as you stand, stand by me”._

The two remain silent now, losing themselves in the song that they had always taken to personify their marriage. Harleen would always stand by Bruce and Bruce would always stand by her. That was there strength. In their family as well but first and foremost? It came from one another.

They move across the carpet with practiced ease, falling into their old steps as if it was still their wedding day. “Harleen, I just...I want to say that if something does happen, I want you to be happy again”.

_“So darling, darling staaand by me, oh stand by me, oh stand, stand by me, stand by me”._

“And learn some other guy’s habits? Besides, would I have to change costumes too?” she asks, hiding behind jokes. “Switch in Batwoman for Squirrelwoman or Kitewoman or some other insanity? No...no, I’m used to the guy I got”.

_“If the sky, we look upon, should crumble annnd fall, or the mountains, should crumble, to theeee sea, no I wont, shed a tear, no I wont shed a tear, just as long, as you stand, stand by me”_

She kisses his lips and remains close, the two simply swaying in one another’s arms at this point. “No. I’m going to be Mrs. Wayne for the rest of my life puddin’. That’s just how it is”.

He takes his hand up to cup her cheek, brushing his thumb over her lips, unable to stop the smile that was contagious. There was fear, and there was sadness, but there was hope. Both knew what had to be done, and neither would balk at the crusade they had taken on.

A thought comes to her mind and she can’t shake it away. She needed to tell him. 

“Puddin’?”  
  


“Hmm?”

He was much too comfortable now as he had lowered his face to lean his forehead against hers, and he couldn’t provide a verbal acknowledgement beyond the one that he knew annoyed her so much. “When you get back? Let’s just...take a vacation. You me, and the kids...just...some time away with each other. To collect ourselves as a family”.

  
With everything that had happened?   
  
It sounded like a good idea.

He just nods and the couple continues to dance, the ending of their song coming soon.

_“Darling, darling, stand, by me, oh stand, by me, ohh stand now, stand by me, stand by me, whenever you’re in trouble wont you stand by me, stand by me, oh wont you stand now, stand by me, stand by me…..”._

**_Justice League Forward Camp_ **

“Barry!”

“Jesus Christ Shayera!” the speedster shouts back, having been on his way from the mess tent when the winged Thanagarian had jumped out of the darkness at him. Shayera was all business though, and was in fact enraged at what she had found out.   
  
She grabs the blonde man by the arm and pulls him away from the main road that cut through the tent city. “What’s going on…”.

“Shut up for a second Barry!”

She was radiating anger, and she couldn’t even control it. When they were clearly away from anyone who could hear them, Shayera begins to tell him. “You know how Cyborg was damaged in that last attack? Where...where that poor girl died?”

“I wasn’t here for that no, but I heard” the man admitted.

“Well, he was so damaged that he had to be put offline. Superman was supposed to send him back to Star Labs where his father could fix him up. Newsflash, he didn’t” the redhead says. “All they did was wire him up like a goddamn laptop. They’ve been using him to process information and run schematics. He was nothing more than...a tool”.

“Shit…”.

“Yeah, he did that to one of his friends, but it gets worse Barry” she says. “That girl, the one from Tamaran? Komand’r?”

“What about her?”

“I was here when she got to this planet. I didn’t know why she was here, Superman didn’t tell me. He didn’t tell any of us except for Grodd who then put the information down in his little diary and uploaded it to Cyborg’s consciousness. Barry, there was all sorts of stuff on there”.

“Like what Shay?”

He reaches out and grabs her arms, knowing that whatever had rattled the women had to be big. “He raped her Barry” she explains. “Lured her here under false pretenses of some sort of alliance, had Grodd brainwash her, and then raped her, all for the sole purpose of impregnating her and securing an heir”.

“My god…”.

She nods, having had a hard time believing that the man would stoop so low. “There were all sorts of medical files about the suitability of different species. Thanagarians among them” she explains. “He was considering doing the same to me, especially with Katar….”. She stops for a moment, trying to collect herself at the knowledge that her husband had left her.

‘And with good reason if this is the man you’ve chosen to serve!’ she seethes, hating herself for her foolishness at that moment.

“What do we do now?”  
  
“What the hell do you mean “what do we do?” he asks. “We’re not sticking around to keep being his obedient lackeys. I’ve had a problem with a lot of the things he’s done and it's been getting worse” he admits before looking away ashamed. “Kind of stupid that murder and toppling governments was okay in my book but this pushes me over the edge”.

She nods in agreement, though she still doesn’t know exactly what the best option for moving forward was. “We should get to the wall” the speedster says. “Get Cyborg out of here and…”.

He notices that the woman looks away and shakes her head. “He’s not coming Barry”.

“What? Why? Can’t you carry him? I mean you’re not Superman but you’re really strong. He’s not on board with this is he? Not after everything they did to him too..”.

She places her hand up to silence the man who could sometimes speak just as quickly as he could run. “No Barry...I mean...he’s gone”.

“What?”

“I did it” she explains. “He asked me too. He said that most of his human pieces, his heart, lungs and his other organs that were still left had become unviable due to lack of oxygen. His brain was the only thing functioning, and it was only at half capacity” she explains. “He asked me to unplug him”.

“Ohh...Victor…”.

“I know”.

“You did the right thing” he comforts, rubbing her shoulder. She smiles lightly at the speedster before shaking her head to the negative. “No” she says firmly. “I haven’t done the right thing in a long time. But that ends now”.

She reaches into the knapsack that hung at her side, pulling out a hard drive that contained all of the information stored on Cyborg. “But I want to be a hero now. A real one. Even if it’s the last thing I do”.

He smiles at the woman and nods. “Glad I’m not defecting along” he teases. “Hey, you’ll get to see Carter again” he adds, trying to look on the bright side. “Sure he’s pissed but at the end of the day, he’ll take you back”.

She wasn’t so sure about that.

Barry didn’t know that the rules of loyalty between spouses on Thanagar were incredibly strict. If one could not trust their lover who slept in the same bed as them at night, who could they truly trust? When they’d gotten to Earth she expected the mission to be so simple. A cakewalk.

But Superman was an inspirational figure who was gifted at speaking and winning someone over with that false boy scout charm and fake morality. 

He was a gifted liar before he was anything else.

“We need to get there quickly” she explains, brushing off Barry’s sentence. “Superman thinks they’re planning something big. If they are? It might help them to have whatever is on here” she explains. 

“You’re talking to the master of quick” he says with a smile, holding out his arms.

She doesn’t readily understand the point he was trying to make though it was clear he wanted her to do something. “Well...gonna let me carry you or not?”

“Barry, I can fly” she defends herself with.

Just then, alarms ring out across the base, waking up every soldier and alerting them that something was horribly wrong. Searchlights instantly pop up and begin searching over the ground, looking for someone. “Ohh no…” she says. “They must’ve found Cyborg’s body. We have to”.

Suddenly she’s picked up in Barry’s arms with a suddenness that didn’t allow her a chance to retaliate. “Sure you can fly, but there’s no way you can fly fast enough”.

Without another second’s notice he rushes towards the walls of the besieged city, able to see obstacles and move around them at the speed of light. Shayera was amazed that she wasn’t being ripped apart, but then she remembered that Barry was holding her.

‘That’s right’ she thinks. ‘Temporary access to the speed force’.

His timing had been perfect too, for Superman had just woken up and rocketed out of his bed at a speed that matched, if not exceeded Barry’s. Precious seconds were wasted though as he tried to move out of his sleep induced haze. 

He sees them rushing away from the camp toward the wall, Shayera in Barry’s arms and can deduce, without knowing the full extent of the damage and betrayal, that something was wrong.

‘They can’t reach the wall!’

He rockets after them, desperate to catch up to them. He moves through tents and even bursts through some of his men, not taking the time to go around them. Instead they explode into gorey messes, the remnants of their bodies, which could be chalked up to bits of bone and blood, splattered everywhere, covering their comrades who had been unfortunate enough to be in the man of steel’s path.

  
He was getting closer and closer with every nanosecond, but Barry’s speed...it took a while for him to match. 

Their race was rapidly bringing them to the wall, and at best Superman could count on possibly being able to avoid the wide net cast by Luthor’s kryptonite traps. Even the ambient energy of the rock was enough to make him feel weaker.

He stops, knowing that if he got any closer he would run the risk of falling to a trap and losing his power. With the number of casualties his army had taken, the likelihood of running into one of their patrols over the ones that Gotham sent out to defend itself had become less and less likely.

He stalls and watches in the air as Barry and Shayera make it to a checkpoint and both promptly surrender themselves. 

Before he even though to use his laser vision, the two are ushered inside the broken part of the wall, each wearing power inhibitor collars, though Shayera didn’t need one, and taking them out of his view.

“Rao dammit” he seethes, moving back to camp to take stock of the yet further damage that had been wrought on his army. 

‘We can’t keep losing!’ he thinks to himself, aware that something was going to happen soon. Even with all his power and the men at his side, he wasn’t sure that they would be able to win. Not now. 

He had to settle this, and settle it soon.

‘Batman’ he thinks. ‘Kill Batman. He’s the symbol of this city and crushing him? Heh, that’ll crush their will to fight’.

One question remained though. 

How could the man be drawn out into the open?

**_Justice Society Interrogation Room_ **

Anatoli takes a long drag on his cigarette, idly watching the utterly broken man across the table from him with a feigned disinterest. He was bruised, bloody and broken, and all traces of fight were out of him.

‘I still have it’.

“Let us just do over it one more time da?”

That set Black Lightning over the edge, the sleep deprivation and torture beginning to take it’s toll. “I already...told you...everything” he whimpers out, his throat having been damaged. “Da, yes. You have told me much. So much in fact that if you went back to Superman you would assuredly die. Do you think so?”

Jefferson Pearce says nothing, trying to keep his anger in check. At this point he had been conditioned that saying anything the KGBeast didn’t like would lead to a beating. 

“So, you did this all to protect your children and wife?”

“Anissa and Jennifer...yes…”.

“Hmm…”.

“You...you don’t understand”.

The man hated the accusing eyes that the Russian looked at him with. He hated them, not because he felt he didn’t deserve it but because he knew that he absolutely had it coming. “I think I do understand” the man says. “You see, I am a father too...was a father”.

That shook Jefferson, nothing about the man screaming paternal to him. 

“My children and wife...they died because of your boss, and in part that means they died because of you”. Anatoli stops to take another drag on his cigarette, pretending to be nonplussed. “This leaves us with a moral dilemma nyet?”

“Please...don’t kill me…”.

Anatoli ignores the man’s pleading and simply gets up, pacing the room. “You see, my children’s lives? They were undoubtedly worth yours to you. After all, you didn’t mind what Superman did as long as your family was safe”.

Jefferson was fearful, but he couldn’t move. He begins to wet himself at seeing the man draw a knife from his belt. 

“Did you know my father carried this in the Great Patriotic war? You Americans know it as world war two. But he carried this all the way from Stalingrad, where he was born, to Berlin. That is one thousand, three hundred and seventy eight of your American miles”. He stops to study the knife. 

“Through that? He revenged himself for the loss of his family. Slaughtering and raping as a hero of the Red Army. It didn’t bring his family back, nor did it bring him peace”.

He turns to the man again and then slams the knife into the table, shocking him. “I’m not going to kill you. It wont bring my family back. It wont make me feel better. In fact, I just want you to know that if the shoes were...how is that American expression?”

Jefferson doesn’t give an answer, though it was clear he knew it.

Anatoli glares and slams his fist down on the table. “ANSWER ME SVIN’YA!”

“On the other foot…” Jefferson says shakily. “On the other foot”.

“Hmm..da, what an interesting idiom” he pauses before shrugging and continuing. “If the shoe was on the other foot….I would rather die with my family as a man than kill children, even though in my heart I’d know that my family was worth more to me than all of the others in the world”.

He turns and moves to the door, opening it and preparing to exit, the final interrogation of the man being over. “You are now a prisoner of war of Gotham. Count yourself lucky you are not a prisoner of the Soviet Union. May you live the rest of your life, devoid of peace, and may your children despise you so that you never know a good night’s rest”.

He turns and exits, closing the door behind him with one two final words. “Dobroy nochi”.

The former hero is left with nothing but his thoughts and fears and wounds and his piss soaked pants.

Part of him wished he was dead.


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS IS IT! The first of the two big fight scenes. Remember, Tantalus is still out there, and I'll be writing that battle next. But for now? This....

**_Forward Wall Defensive Line_ **

Lex was angry, and that normally wasn’t a good thing for anyone involved. It had started to rain, and that only increased the mud that stuck to his shoes. He wasn’t vain, but his shoes had been expensive. 

‘That’s another three thousand dollar layout for a new pair of Santonis’ he thinks before chuckling at how stupid it was to think of such inconsiderable things like that right before the battle for the future of mankind. 

“Over here Mr. Luthor”.

The soldier opens a door on one of the makeshift shacks that the soldiers constructed at the base of the wall, allowing for quicker deployment in case of a surprise raid. The bald man nods and steps inside, ducking his head so as to avoid slicing it open on the corrugated metal.

“So...this is what they dragged me all the way out here for hmm?”

His eyes land on the two prisoners, the Flash and Hawkgirl, who either look away in shame or return his gaze defiantly, respectively. He sits down at a chair across from them and crosses his fingers together.

“I don’t have time so I’m just going to ask you this one. What do you know about Superman and the plans he has for his army?”

“Everything” Barry says, cutting off the explosion he saw coming from his winged friend. “That’s what we’ve been telling your men. That hard drive” he says, gesturing to the device on the table. “It belonged to Cyborg”.

“And where is he that you were able to come across this nifty little device?” Lex questions.

“Dead”.

Shayera looks away after speaking, unable to relive the memory of her killing such a close friend. “Ahh…”.

“Luthor you have to listen to us” Barry continues. “That hard drive? It has everything on it. Literally. Weapons schematics to things that would make you stay awake with the worst nightmares you’d ever had. Political plans, military maneuvers, a list of all the political prisoners and their families. Hell you could probably find the big cheese’s bank statement on there”.

Lex reaches over and takes the device off of the table, turning it this way and that in his grasp as if something nefarious about it would be uncovered by the mere act of touching it. “And what makes you think I believe you?”

“What?”

Barry was genuinely confused by the question, but it became apparent that Lex was going to explain his thinking to him. “After months of siege, you rush out here with a hard drive and what? Expect me to plug it into some sort of system? Then what? Cyborg is able to infect all of our defensive protocols? A super virus? Is that your plan?”

Shayera had to admit that if Superman had suggested that months ago she would’ve thought it very clever. But now? The very thought of that possibility made her shiver. “No! I promise you it’s not like that” the Flash says. “We want to help. We want to end this war”.

“And what then? Walk away like you weren’t part of a genocidal regime that killed millions?”

That was a more uncomfortable question to ask the man, and indeed it was hard for him to give a legitimate answer. “No...I don’t expect that”. He turns to Shayera and nods, bracing himself for what he was going to say next. “Hawkgirl and I take full responsibility for our crimes, and we want to do the right thing. We surrender to you…”.

Another figure enters the tent, and she didn’t seem to be keen on waiting for their conversation to end. Whatever was going on, it was big.

‘Superman was right’ Shayera thinks to herself. ‘Gotham is planning something’.

“Katana” Lex greets the woman who bows quickly. “My shogun and Hawkman are ready. We await your orders and command Luthor”.

‘Carter….’. The thought of seeing her husband again was enough to make the woman struggle against her bonds. “Hawkman?! You mean Katar? Please..please let me see him!” she begs a stoic and unmoved Lex. 

“Why?”

“He’s my husband...please, I need to tell him…”.

“Tell him what?”

Lex stands suddenly and cuts off her words. “I’ve gotten to know him, as well as all the other heroes who ran from you and your circle of tyrants. I consider them all...friends”. The word was uncomfortable on his lips as he himself had never have friends. He knew it fit though, as he cared for all of them.

‘Not that I’d ever say that aloud’ he thinks, pocketing the thought in the back of his mind. 

“The last person he wants to speak with is you”.

That only makes Shayera struggle more against her bonds. “Please? I promise I’m not going anywhere or planning anything. I swear it!”

“Luthor, the army is assembled. We must go”.

Katana was clearly impatient, and her hand gripped the pommel of her sword nervously. She was clearly prepared for battle. Her suit was immaculate and her mask and face paint applied properly. The bamboo shield attached to her shoulder was freshly painted, with a new decal upon it. 

A bat symbol, in black, stood in stark contrast against the red base color. A question comes to his mind. “Is everyone out there?”

“Hai”.

“Hmmm”.

Slowly he smiles and turns to the two former Leaguers, gesturing for their guards to pull them up to their feet. “Alright Hawkgirl. You’ll get your chance to see your husband. And Flash? Well, it’ll just be fun for everyone to leer at you”.

He points at the door and thus the soldiers begin to move them out, patting the two forward with their rifles. Katana also moves to the side, becoming rigid at the sight of her enemies. ‘Not only are they evil, but they also surrendered. Not a speck of meiyo!’. She resists the urge to spit as they cross her sight.

Barely. 

The two enter into the light of day and see the group of heroes and soldiers, mulling around and speaking to one another, trying to quell their anxiousness. It takes a moment, her eyes having gotten used to the damp darkness they’d been kept in ever since they’d run to Gotham in the wee hours of the morning.

She sees him though, and her heart takes flight almost as if it itself had wings. “Katar!”

She knew she shouldn’t have shouted or drawn attention to herself, as indeed everyone was looking at the two now. 

The soldiers begin to cheer as they see them cuffed and powerless, high fiving one another. “Yeah! Hah we gottem!”.

“Fuck the League!”   
  


“Cowards. Ran all the way here cuz’ you knew Superman’s going down”.

Hawkman looked on his wife and felt the exact opposite as she did. His heart turned to stone and his eyes reflected that apathy. She stops for a moment, trying to find the right thing to shout out to him. She couldn’t think of anything.    
  
The truth came out.

“Katar, I love you...please...forgive me!”

Hawkman continues to look at the woman before he feels someone move into his side. He turns his head to see Tora standing there, looking up at him nervously. He hated the sadness and fear him her eyes, undoubtedly not only from his being out on the battlefield without her but also from the idea that he might want to go back to his wife.

Shayera was confused, and lets the soldiers lead her a bit nearer to get a better grasp of the situation. ‘Who is she?’

Carter reaches out with his hand and threads his fingers through Tora’s reaching up to her cheek and smiling. He was not good at public displays of affection, and he’d be the first to admit it. It almost made him and Tora a bad match, with her craving openness and not shying away from showering the man she was rapidly falling even deeper for with her affection.

Shayera was fuming now, boiling over as it became clearer what was going on. Part of her mind whispers that it was a possibility. That she deserved it. ‘We left him alone on a foreign planet. Abandoned everything we were supposed to believe in and for what? Superman?’

She wanted to curse herself for believing in the Kryptonian and all his pompous speech about what the Justice League could mean to this world and others. 

It cost her everything.

“Katar…”.

“Move Hawk bitch”.

The soldier’s push her and the Flash forward forcibly, apparently not wanting them to interrupt what was going on. “Katar please!” Shayera shouts out, stumbling forward. He ignores her, or it was clear that he was trying. It caused him too much pain to hear her cry out to him, and he had to resist the urge to fly right over to her.

Instead he is lost in Tora’s lips as she leans up and kisses him. His hands go to her waist and she knows that he is hers. ‘Jeg esker deg Carter...always’ she thinks, knowing that it was too soon to put those thoughts to words yet even if she felt them. 

Hawkgirl and the Flash soon lose sight of the crowd while being led downward into a trench, one of the many that doubted the eerily silent landscape of the partially evacuated city. They’d been preparing for an all out war, and now?   
  


Those plans were going to pay off.

Lex steps up in front of the makeshift army, putting the hard drive away for a moment and taking a step up onto a humvee. “Mercy, my megaphone please baby” he says, asking the woman who was waiting here for that exact reason. “First time you ever called me baby” she giggles, handing the desired item up to the blushing man. 

“Well...get used to it”.

“Ohh I will”.

He puts flirting with his girlfriend off in order to directly address all the men and women assembled before him. He brings the megaphone to his lips and begins to speak. “I’m not good at fancy speeches, and I really don’t think you need one” he says. “If you do? President Dent will give one after it’s all over. Ask him”.

A chorus of laughter descends upon the group, and he can’t help but seek out Batman. He couldn’t see him, and with the hulking suit of armor he wore it was night impossible to miss the man. “You know what’s at stake. The freedom of the world and nothing less”.

The mood becomes solemn and indeed it seemed like everyone was hanging on his every word. “Your children’s futures. Anything you believe in. The nations, or planets” he says, seeing Komand’r and knowing Hawkman is there as well.

‘What’s she doing here though?’ he asks himself curiously, resolving to check on the girl after the battle had commenced and when he’d have time. 

“So...I don’t need to rouse you into a fighting spirit because if the fact that a barbarian horde sits outside of these walls, threatening to take everything doesn’t do it alone? Nothing ever will”.

That draws a raucous cheer, each and every man and woman before him wanting to show that they were dedicated to the cause. He sees them all. Russians, Amazons, Gothamites and U.S army soldiers.    
  


“Cheers to that mate!” John shouts, standing to the side with his Justice Society compatriots. Vixen smiles and slaps his chest reproachfully.    
  
‘Even smartass exorcists from England’ he grins.

“Do we all know the plan?”

“Yes”.

The new voice was someone that he was waiting for, and his appearance causes half of the billionaires worries to evaporate. The suit caused him to make a sound as he walked, the heavy steel boots crunching against the concrete. He did look quite menacing though, and the faint hue of the kryptonite gave it away that this suit was going to be the end of Superman.

‘The man inside of it will be at least’.

Lex nods and smiles while Katana and Hawkman saddle up beside the one who would lead them into battle, a threatening trio they made. It wasn’t their normal grouping to be fair. Katana and Batman had fought together often, but the rest? They’d been thrown together haphazardly, and they’d made the best of what they could.

“We’ll engage Superman and his remaining lieutenants” Batman speaks, allowing his words to reach those who were nearest to him. “We’re hoping that he keeps his army back while he handles the three of us personally”.

“He will” Luthor interjects. “A man like him? He wont use his army and possibly deflect from his own glory”.

Bruce nods, feeling that to be an accurate judgement of the man’s character. “The rest of you will attack the League’s army. As much as it is possible let metahuman engage metahuman. We don’t want unnecessary casualties, or at least as few of them as possible”.

“I cannot promise that the red army will not kill” KGBeast says, leading his men with an ak47 and other random tools of war strewn across his body. Raina stood beside him, as did Terra and Vertigo though they did not carry any weapons.

They were their own weapons.

Bruce glares at the man but eventually finds that he has no choice but to agree. Killing had already happened, and on a massive scale. It was unrealistic to assume that it would end without a drop of blood being spilled.

‘As long as it’s the last’ he thinks to himself, resolving that he at least would not take a life. 

“Is that it?” Beast Boy asks curiously, stepping forward. “Seems a little...sparse as far as plans go don’t it?”

“It is” Bruce admits. “And it’s because we’re out of options”.

That seemed to shock the assembled army who had assumed that they would come out on top regardless, either by waiting them out or by winning outright. “We can’t keep hiding. Not while the world burns and suffers. As soon as the head is taken from the serpent, the body will die”.

Batman lowers his head and refuses to say anymore, the latent radiation of the suit affecting him, but not making him slower as he expected. In fact he felt...stronger.

“Are you three ready?”

Bruce casts a quick look at his compatriots who each nod, giving their assent. “We’re ready”.

“OPEN THE GATE!” Luthor calls, the machinery and gears turning to open one of the small exit points that had been built into the side of the wall. Bruce leads the way, stepping out and leaving his foot prints in the mud while the crowd watches in enraptured silence, knowing that this was the beginning of the end of the battle of Fortress Gotham.

“Form up sisters! Prepare!”

“AWOO! AWOO!”

The sounds of shields and spears clanking together as the Amazons form their phalanx can be heard up and down the line. Due to them being who they are, and having the added bonus of the god of war being on their side, they would lead the charge, with the Russians and regular army right behind them.

The other metahumans would be dispersed throughout, responding to threats as they arose.

Adriane was beside Ares, the two standing in the battle line with their shields locked together and their swords ready. A thought comes to the general’s mind and she turns to the man. “We should’ve convened a date before this”.

He was taken off guard by that statement and looks at her agape through his helmet. “What?”

“A date” she explains. “A battle council”.

A low rumble escapes his throat and he shakes his head. “General, that is not what a date is” he explains tentatively, happy for the momentary distraction. Now it was her turn for confusion. “What is it then?”   
  


“It is a romantic outing between two people. It allows them to get to know each other better on a personal level” he explains and Adriane goes wide eyed, not believing that she had just said that to the man. With a furious blush she turns away and tries to ignore the sniggering of her few sisters who heard the comment. 

“I would like us to go out on a date though general”.

She turns to the man, unable to believe he’d make such a bold and brave statement to her! An Amazon, a woman who has promised to forsake men for eternity in honor of her service. ‘The gall, the shear idiocy of him to even suggest such a thing!’.

As she looked closer at him, the parts she could see through the armor, she decided that those traits were partly endearing and could thoroughly understand how he had almost succeeded in seducing Hippolyta before she cast him away in fear.

“A wager”.

“Hmm?”

“You heard me Ares. A wager” she says. “If I defeat more warriors than you, you never say such an asinine thing to me again”.

“And if I win?”

“I go out on a so called date with you”.

He mulled it over for a moment, though he knew already what he was going to say. “I agree Adriane, general of the Amazons. I give you my word that I shall count both of our victories honestly and when I win, I shall show you that I am just as proficient at making love as I am at making war”.

She blushes again and practically seethes at the idea, knowing she would put her utmost effort into winning this wager. ‘That troll! He had to make that lewd and utterly male statement! He makes me so...angry...and...he’s still so brave….”.

She shakes her inner turmoil away and focuses. 

This would be the battle that proves she and her sisters still deserved the right to the title of Amazon.

**_Justice League Forward Camp_ **

He was perplexed, and that wasn’t something he was used to. In fact, it was downright discomforting. As he sat in his command tent he ruminated on all that had happened. Cyborg’s death, the defection of Flash and Hawkgirl.

That was enough to anger him. 

“Dammit”.

“Kal...something is…”.

Diana seemed to be out of breath already, which was strange for her. She was twitching, and seemed to be losing weight. Her skin had become almost grey.

He was concerned, but he was even more concerned about what else was happening. He slams his fist down on the table, shaking it and assuredly close to breaking it if he had used any more force. “What now?”.

“It appears...Batman and...two others have exited the city”.

She stops, grasping her stomach and grimacing in pain. “Are you okay Diana? You don’t look well”. She glares at the man and snaps back. “I’m fine Clark!”. 

He ignores that particular issue for the moment and advances out of the tent. “Where are they?” The former Amazon princess follows and points out to three silhouettes advancing across no man’s land. He could see them perfectly fine. “Hmm...what are they doing?”

“Are they here to surrender?”

She knew that it was a ridiculous prospect but still, part of her hoped for it. Tantalus had to get here soon. ‘How long could it take to devour the underworld?’ she asks herself before realizing that that was a stupid question as it was the underworld.

‘Come soon my love’.

The hunger, it was tearing her apart, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could actually contain it. “I don’t know but...it doesn’t look like it”.

Clark couldn’t help the smile that crossed his face. Finally, he’d be able to do something himself. No longer would he be kept out of the action by the force of kryptonite clad walls. He’d be able to fight, bring it right to the one person aside from Luthor that would end this.

“Diana, Grodd!” he shouts out, the telepathic ape having been lumbering nearby. “Come on. We have to meet someone”.

His two underlings nod and begins to walk towards them.

He didn’t want to appear to eager, rush out there while flying. No. No. If they were coming to surrender he wanted his new servants to see him in a nonplussed and easy way. On the off chance that they were surrendering of course.

If they weren’t?   
  


Well he wanted them to know that he wasn’t even bothered by their presence.

“What are we going to do Superman? What are your orders?”

“Just relax Grodd. A friendly social call. That’s all this might be” Kal teases the gorilla, some of his own soldiers coming out to gawk at the oncoming confrontation. He waves them off though, not wanting them to do anything rash and ruin their fun.

As they move across the debris strewn no man’s land, he knows that Lex is watching. The whole city. 

‘Good’ he thinks to himself. ‘That’s what I want’.

It feels like a millennium before the two groups reach each other when in reality it was probably no more than ten minutes or so. When they stand a few feet from one another though? The tension could be cut with a knife.

Neither speak.

Not just yet, but when they do it was already known that Clark would be the first one to do it. Bruce was just waiting for the right moment to strike, wanting to use the man’s cocky self assurance against him should he get the chance. 

He’d disengaged the kryptonite, hiding it beneath a telegraphic shield that also worked on keeping its residue and heat signature hidden.

Superman would have no idea what hit him.

Clark smiles, trying to appear conciliatory. “Batman. It’s nice to see you again. I hope this time we might have the chance to talk a little more rationally. Think that’s possible?”

“No. I don’t”.

The smile falls, though in a false way. It was clear that the one thing Clark desperately wanted was a fight. “That’s a shame. It would’ve been much better to have you and the others working with us instead of against us”.

Katana narrows her eyes at Wonder Woman, whom she was standing across from. ‘She does not appear to be healthy’. The Amazon’s nerves seemed to be more and more frayed, and her hunger growing steadier and steadier. 

The scent of burt and decaying flesh that littered the battlefield wasn’t helping her either. 

Hawkman was just bouncing his mace up and down in his hands, glaring at Grodd menacingly. The gorilla did well at hiding the fact, but if one were to plunge into his subconscious the thoughts you’d find inside would let it be known that he was more than a little wary of taking on the Thanagarian.

“We don’t negotiate with terrorists”.

“Ohh well that’s a policy change” the man says with a smile. “The nation that was here before me? It negotiated with terrorists all the time. In fact? Some of its greatest friends were terrorists” he goes on. “Saudia Arabia, China, Turkey. Those nation states are all rubble now”.

“I don’t see how you’re any different” Batman accuses, not wanting to have a philosophical argument. “Maybe I’m not” Superman admits, also not in the mood for a debate. “There is one key difference though. I’m honest to a degree about my intentions in a way that they never were and never could be”.

Bruce doesn’t say anything as at this moment he can only focus on what he needed to do. He might die. In fact? It seemed likely. The raw power that Superman had? He wasn’t sure if he would be able to dampen it enough with the kryptonite.

Images of his children, all of them, flash before his eyes.    
  
Mary and Martha on the first day they came into this world, laying in their mother’s arms. Barbara’s smiling face as she finally managed to hit the target with a birdarang. Jason laughing while going through the obstacle course alongside Harleen.

Harleen...his wife. His partner.

The images go on.

Alfred and Elise dancing while Vic and Dinah and their children clap. His niece Harleen in her mother’s lap, smooshing her fingers into her birthday cake as Harvey and Pamela laugh. Random faces, faces he’d only seen once on the streets of Gotham.

New friends. 

Old family.

He needed to do this.

“So, if neither of us are going to be surrendering to the other, are we going to get to it? Because I’d really just rather get to killing you and parading your bodies around the walls until anyone who’s smart surrenders”.

“Yes. Lets”.

With the click of the button built into his wrist, the suit’s shields lift, blasting the kryptonian with the ambient energy of his homeworld. He puts his hand up, trying to shield himself but failing miserably. He already felt weaker, and his legs begin to shake.

Batman wasn’t done yet though.

“NOW!”

Before either of Superman’s lieutenants could act, Hawkman and Katana had essentially switched combatants and crossed over the path of each other, diving in Wonder Woman and Gorilla Grodd respectively while Batman thrust himself forward, delivering a mean uppercut that knocked Clark back. 

The man wasn’t completely down for the count though, and it would take a while more until his energy was depleted to such a point as to render him as harmless as possible. Regardless of the kryptonite, this was going to be a tough battle.

  
Hawkman meanwhile slammed into Diana, using his mace against her upper arm and tearing the skin and muscle as the jagged points that dot the weapon’s head. “Bastard!” she seathes, patting the wound with her hand and resisting the urge to lick the latent blood that clings there. Instead she brings her sword and shield upwards, throwing herself back at her Thanagarian opponent whom she didn’t expect to be fighting.

His nth metal mace clangs against her shield, stopping her with the raw force used and causing the two to descend into a glorified shoving match. “Resorting to dirty tricks now Carter? This will be too easy. You should’ve let the woman fight me. At least then the fight would be against an equal”.

She thrusts out with her sword and catches Carter in the side, tearing open some of his flesh in the process. He screams in rage and Diana suddenly feels the air drop out from under her as the man thrusts himself forward with his wings and kicks her off of her feet.

  
She impacts against the ground harshly, getting her shield up just in time to protect herself from the flurry of the mace which rises and falls right upon her. She was holding, but just barely.

Grodd was faring no better and was effectively out of the fight as the steady stream of blood flowed from the given to him right about the eyes by the woman’s sword. He falls back, trying to steady himself and use his telepathic powers.

Katana was ahead of him though.

Having already figured that the rays created by Grodd’s mind were delivered through sight, and had already worked at attaching a bandana around her mask’s eye slits to prevent him from getting to her in such a way. 

She could sense him still, and the whispering of the soultaker was a major assistance as well. He swings out, blindly and lumberingly, with a ferocious strength which might have been deadly to her if she couldn’t so easily dodge it.    
  
As his appendage meets nothing but empty air, the ruler of Gorilla City roars out in anger, desperately trying to fight back at the enemy who was so successful at eluding him. He feels a cut right at his thigh, and he lashes out with a backhand to the rear, trying to catch the woman. He succeeds, but only marginally, clipping her shoulder with his fist and causing Tatsu to wince in pain. 

He lets out a gorilla like whoop of joy, which quickly turns to a roar as he charges forward, trying to catch her off guard. She raises her sword to defend herself, and Grodd captures the steel blade between his fists, using the increased friction and force to pull Tatsu closer.

He sees her struggling through his lightly obstructed vision, and smirks, already imagining his triumph over her.    
  
Tatsu had a different idea than letting herself be pulled into his grasp where she would undoubtedly die. With a quick flick of her wrist, she turns her blade and severs the primate’s thumb from his hand, shifting the course of battle once again in her favor. 

The four continue to clash as Batman hones in on Superman, the two grasping each other’s hands as Batman tries to bring down the armored gloves upon the man, and Superman desperately tries to stop him.

Clark was sweating now, and glaring balefully at the man who was quickly able to get the upper hand on him. “Not a fair fight don’t you think?” Clark asks. Bruce was trying desperately to hold onto his grip as well, and the hydraulics of the suit were working overtime to keep him in the fight. “Was it fair for the millions of people you killed?”

“Touche”.

Kal’s eyes light up slowly, clearing taking more of his energy to use now that the kryptonite was in such close proximity. Bruce knew that he needed to deflect it somehow, but he wasn’t quite sure on the best way to do that. He opts for punching the man as hard as he could in the face, which has the bonus of cracking the alien’s nose and a few teeth, but the drawback of assuring that he armored wrist was in the way of the blast.

The laser cuts through the steel and singes his skin, but luckily Kal’s aim was off, and he didn’t do any major damage.

Not that Bruce would be able to feel too joyous at the fact, so much was the pain as it was. He needed to end this fight quickly as the two were reaching a rough parity of might. 

Superman saw this coming, and he sees how Batman pins the two of them to the ground, using the weight of the suit and the ever increasing dosages of Kryptonite to make sure that Kal stayed down. The dictator struggles underneath the man, delivering punches that were weak for him but stronger than any other human might hope to accomplish, to the bat themed vigilante’s side. 

If he was a lesser man, his ribs would’ve caved in, but as it stood? Bruce tried to keep the pressure up. Slowly he reaches down and grasps Kal El’s neck with his hand, slamming him down and choking the man while delivering pure kryptonite right to his flesh.    
  
He reaches behind him towards the pack that rested upon his back, and retracts a large power cancellation collar that was designed specially to restrict Superman completely, completing a feedback loop in which the red sun energy that sustained him would destroy itself within the man’s body.

Batman was praying that it would work.

The man struggles beneath him as much as possible, though it was clear he wasn’t going to get away from this. “Welcome to being human” Bruce says through gritted teeth, shaking the collar open and pulling the man upwards, slamming him back down against the ground with as much force as he could muster.

This served its purpose of disorientating the man long enough for Bruce to slam the collar around his neck and lock it into place. Instantly, the man who’d for so long thrived upon his powers, now felt them disappear like a puddle in the hot sun.

“No...no…”.

“Yeah...yeah” Bruce mocks, bringing his fist up and slamming it into the man’s face as hard as he could. His nose, already damaged, crunched sickening and twisted to the side as the cartilage was mauled. 

He saw Komand’r, a girl that so reminded him of Barbara, crying over the horrible things that had been done to her at this man’s hands, and brings his fist down again. He sees Amy Allen, the brave girl who sacrificed herself to save his city from annihilation and slams into his eyes socket, bruising the flesh as he does.

He sees the children of the manor, going to school under the watchful eyes of anti aircraft gunners and armed guards that a child should never need to just live their life.

He keeps punching, punishing the man for all the injustices that he’d laid out on others, and all for the sake of his own power, his own fame.

He raises his fist once more, wanting to bring it down again on the man’s face, but as he sees how broken and destroyed he was, hears the ragged breathing, he knows that he can’t push it any further. No. Any further and his morality would also fall victim to the so called man of steel.

He grasps the still, amazingly, conscious man’s shoulders and brings him upwards, demanding that he look at him with his still functioning left eye. “I want you..” he begins. “To remember this day for the rest of your life. I want you to remember the feeling of being beaten but most of all? I want you to remember the man who did it”.

With that he lets Superman’s limp body fall to the dust, and takes stock of his surroundings and himself. The suit Luthor built had been damaged, heavily, and he was unsure if it would come in any more use unless it was repaired. 

Still, it did its job. 

Superman was down for the count, and as he looked around, so was a heavily wounded and cut Gorilla Grodd and Wonder Woman, the latter having had her shield bashed in so many times that it was uselessly thrown away, allowing Hawkman to pummel the already weakened Diana to the best of his abilities.

He only stopped when she yielded, which was much more than could be said for many of her victims. It was a stroke of luck to have the two heroes cut across one another and engage different enemies. Nobody expected it, and in the end they had been able to play upon the inherent weakness of their opponents and their own strengths. 

  
Something whizzes by Bruce’s head, and he only managed to avert it at the last second, just in time for a second missile to impact and shatter against the steel helmet he wore. When he looks up he sees Superman’s meta human allies, at least the ones that remained.

Red Arrow removes another arrow from the quiver at his back, notching it into his bow as quickly as he could. “Dammit. Was aiming for your eyeslit. Mind standing still?” he teases as a woman composed of a roaring green inferno floats in the air next to him.    
  
Katana and Hawkman move to his side, trying to cast a defensive arc around him as they saw that he was wounded. They too hadn’t come out of their respective fights without injury, and it was a bit worrisome to see the odds stacked against them.

There were a lot more meta humans than he’d originally though and most? He didn’t even recognize. Some though? Yeah, he knew who they were. Deathstroke the terminator, a mercenary brandishing a sword. Captain Cold and his Rogues, with the notable exception of Captain Boomerang, who had resigned from the superhero/villain shtick altogether following the rise of the League, stood off to the side, clearly ready to fight.

“What do we do?” Hawkman asks, unaware if Luthor would be able to respond to their plight.

“We die with honor” Katana says.

“Not very attractive as far as options go but…”.

Katar was ready, and he hefts his mace, ready to bring it down upon his enemies. 

The two groups eye each other warily, one being so immensely outnumbered that it was clear the outcome was not going to go there way. All they could hope for was that Luthor’s army would swoop in and retrieve Superman before they died.

Batman rises and raises his fist, glaring at the youth with the arrow. “Sorry bats...really, I am. It’s nothing...AHHHH!”

A shot echoes out and lands right in the boy’s shoulder, throwing him back against the mud and shocking everyone else who hadn’t been ready for such a quick counter attack. They look around and see Deadshot standing atop a destroyed school bus, his and mounted pistol smoking.

“Sorry kid. Your aim ain’t better than mine”.

Fire raises her hands, working on turning the man into nothing more than a pile of ashes when a burst of ice surrounds her legs, having snuck up from behind her. Tora skated across a large slide of the frozen water that ascended into the air, coming face to face with her former best friend. 

“Hello Beatriz. Savner meg?”

The Brazillian woman snarls in rage and tries to throw a punch, though Tora had been learning from Hawkman and was easily able to deflect it. A fight quickly erupted, and all around them the forces of Gotham threw themselves at the Justice League camp, which had now roused itself as if it was a beehive that had been disturbed.

It didn’t matter.

From all sides erupted the Justice Society and the other Gotham loyalists.

“URRRRRRAHHHHHHH!”.

The russians eagerly joined the fray, firing their assault rifles from the shoulder and hitting their targets amongst the unprepared League soldiers in the forward trench. As if they didn’t have enough to worry about, the Amazons got up close and personal, turning the trenches into a blood and mud melee. Ares himself was in the thick of the fighting, growing stronger as the god of war was wont to do with so much conflict around him.

“Azarath Metrion Zinthos!”

A black raven descends from the sky, encasing the girl who summoned it, and swoops over the Rogues, scattering them as they desperately try to fight back. A tiger’s roar could be heard as a green beast enters the fray, Vixen riding on its back. “Thanks sugar. I’ll take it from here” the woman says, rubbing Garfield's ears and causing him to purr while two men try and take her down. She rips her claws across one’s rifle while the other finds himself bound by magical tendrils summoned by John.

“Only I get to touch her like that mate”.

Batman was shocked, not having expected the help to come quite so soon if at all. “It looked like you three needed a hand” a voice says from behind as Luthor begins working on deactivating the suit. “Luthor…”.

“Yeah I know...we were right on your tail the whole time. Waiting. Thank us later”.

He disconnects the wires holding the suits compartments together in the rear and the steel opens with a hiss. The bald man reaches in and helps to pull the man out, allowing him to collapse against him as the kryptonite and stress of wearing such a suit had taken a toll on him. 

The man looks up, seeing another figure flying about, shooting down purple bolts of energy that threw soldiers left and right. “Luthor!” Bruce calls out nervously, pointing upwards. “Ohh yeah...I...well, couldn’t convince her not too. Apparently, and I quote, “Tamaraneans fight no matter what” he says with a shrug.    
  
“Don’t worry though. We’re covering her. It might be good…”.

Just then Blackfire swoops down and grasps two soldiers, lifting them up into the air and slamming them harshly into one another before letting them fall back to the earth.

“For her….”.

“Talk about stress relief” Hawkman says admiringly, understanding the girl as on Thanagar nothing could keep a woman from fighting except the very last cycle of pregnancy. 

Bruce looks out over the battle that was fiercely raging before him, and he can see victory right in their grasp. “Feeling up to knocking a few more heads Batman?”

He turns to the man and takes stock of his condition, giving a wry light smile and nodding. “I can manage a few”.

“Good. Those batarangs of yours will come in handy”.

With that Luthor produces a pistol and takes aim at one of the League’s men, shooting him in the back with an energy pulse that knocks him out. “Huh…” he says, taking a look at the gun. “I think I can get used to this whole combat thing” he exclaims, looking rather ridiculous in his suit, though Bruce notices he did change into sneakers. 

He rises slowly, and looks at the battle before turning to Hawkman and Katana.    
  
Giganta had now joined in and was engaged in a brutal fist fight with the Atom, towering stories above the entire fight. He could see her husband jump from her shoulder onto the opposite giant, working on taking him down alongside the redhead.

It was an oddly inspiring sight, and part of him wished that Harley was here. 

  
Still, it was better that she wasn’t. 

“So? You ready?”

Bruce nods, drawing a batarang from his belt. “Let’s fight”.

**_Wayne Manor_ **

The sounds of battle raged all about the city, and while it wasn’t clear who was winning it was clear that the war was well and truly underway on its path to a successful end. For which side? None could tell, and as the extended Bat family was assembled in the Wayne Manor living room, Alfred moves to shutter the windows, wanting to eliminate as much of the noise as possible. 

Martha and Mary sat cuddled next to Jason, who was himself seated next to Harleen, two Amazons flanking the couch on either side while the other two took their position at the door.

“Is daddy going to be okay Jason?”

“He’s going to be fine sweetie. I promise”.

The boy stroked Martha’s hair, holding Mary close as well while Harleen just stared into space, gripping her hands within one another fiercely. On the opposite couch sat Vic and Dinah, each holding two of their own children and trying to comfort them with the belief that Bruce would be fine.

Elise was sitting in the opposite corner, nursing a glass of bourbon that kept shaking with her hand. They were afraid. All of them. But they had to have faith. They had to believe that everything was going to be okay and that the man who meant so much to all of them would move out of this battle unscathed. 

  
“You’re daddy is gonna be fine Martha bear” she says, looking down at her redheaded daughter as well. “And my little Mary bug”.    
  
She reaches out to tweak her nose. “Your daddy is one thing above all others”.

  
“What?”   
  


“A good guy. And what do good guys do?”

“They win?”   
  


“Exactly right young Miss Wayne” Alfred says. “The good guys win”.

‘Not always’ Harleen’s mind whispers, though the shakes this thought away as quickly as it had come. That wouldn’t help her daughters feel better right now, nor would it comfort her family or herself. No. 

“Yes sweetie” she adds. “The good guys always win. And your daddy? Hes the bestest good guy ever”. That was at least the truth to her. Of all the men and women out there fighting? None represented hope in the way Bruce did. It was a hidden and quiet hope, but a hope nonetheless. 

They were going to win. 


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For fun play "Two of The Lucky Ones" while reading the part with Ares and Adriane. It's the song I listened to to help me write their scene.

**_Gotham City No Man’s Land_ **

Bruce ducked down behind a ruined wall, narrowly avoiding the burst of automatic fire that stitched itself across the bricks. One round even manages to penetrate the stone, though it zings though the air harmlessly, missing him by inches.

He pulls two batarangs from his utility belt, having quickly calculated that two men had a bead on him. They’d be expecting him to jump over the top, pop his head up like an amaeteur where they would then pick him off.

They’d been trained in the art of war by their time in Iraq or Afghanistan most likely, where street fighting was a key component. Bruce had also been trained in street warfare, though you wouldn’t find what he knew in any manual.

He knew exactly what to do. 

He throws his cape up over the edge, causing a perfect distraction as they focus all of their fire on the moving black object that they could only assume to be Batman. They were wrong, and its quick descent back down, now filled with holes, only gives him a bit more time. 

He rushes around the corner and lets the metallic weapons free from his hands, scything through the air on their way to the targets. The men were quick, and they recalibrated their aim to fix on the vigilante who’d taken down their leader. 

They were quick yes, but Batman was quicker.

Before their fingers could pull back upon their triggers, the batarangs make contact. One wedged one of it’s points into the barrel, causing the shot to impact against it and them ricochet wildly in the barrel before exploding within the rifle, causing the man to drop his destroyed weapon.

The other sliced upwards on the outside of the forward hand grip, cutting the soldier’s hand and making him drop it away from his rifle. His aim was no longer steady, and the bullets that pulse out from the weapon impact against the dirt before them, further disorientating them and even forcing the other to jump away in fear of being killed by one of the stray bullets.

Bruce charges forward and jumps into the air, avoiding the deadly hail of gunfire that was killing nothing but ants at the moment. 

By the time the soldier got control of his weapon and had time to notice the dark shape in the air above him, it was too late, and Bruce brings a haymaker down on the top of his helmet. It would so some damage, but it would avoid killing him.

It hadn’t been enough to knock him out fully though, and the man merely grabs his head in pain. Bruce turns to see that the man’s partner had drawn his sidearm and was now aiming it directly at him.

‘Dammit...sloppy Bruce. Sloppy’.

He had to think quick, and account for variables he hadn’t seen coming before. 

Without thinking too much, he grabs the wounded man and pretends to use him as a human shield, though his real intention was much different. Instead he would serve as a battering ram. He knew that the League’s foot soldiers wouldn’t kill their own, and that fact could be seen in the horror that clouded over the man’s eyes at the thought of being forced to shoot his own friend.

That fear was paralyzing, and it was just what Bruce needed. He charges forward and slams the body of the practically unconscious man into his comrade, the momentum forcing both of them down onto the ground and knocking one out instantly as the other’s helmet had slammed into his forehead.

Bruce leans down, grasps the remaining one by the collar and slams his fist down right into his face, putting two more of the League’s ever decreasing numbers down for the count. 

“Batman”.

He turns to see Princess Komand’r standing behind him, suited up in armor plate that seemed to cover all the portions of her body that wouldn’t be covered by her skirt or top. He makes to say something before her eyes widen and she brings up her hand as it is encased in green energy. Her eyes glow angrily and for a moment he believes she was going to incinerate him.

  
“Get down”.

He follows her order immediately and ducks to the ground, turning just in time to watch three men that had tried to get the drop on them by using the wreck of an abandoned humvee. They were hit by the pure energy and each fall back, unconscious.

Batman turns and sees the girl smirk happily, gloating good naturedly in how she had saved his life. “Thank you” Bruce says simply. “You’re welcome. Now, Luthor told me to come and find you”.

“Why? What’s happening?”

“He thinks it would be best to retreat” she explains before the sound of a rampaging elephant could be heard behind them. They turn and see Garfield, transformed into a green version of the hulking African land mammal, slamming in the side of a tank, stopping it from firing. Raina was seated on his back, like a Soviet style Mowgli, and she raises her hands, encasing the vehicle in her black energy.

The troops inside abandon it before it’s lifting into the air where she crushes it until it was nothing but a mangled heap.    
  
The energy disappears and the tank falls to the ground, a tangled and mangled mess. Blackfire smiles again and turns towards the man, gesturing with her chin to follow her. The battlefield had shrunk considerably with many of the League’s forces being whittled down to nothing. Without Superman, Grodd and Wonder Woman? They weren’t so tough.

“Before you get mad at me, Tamaraneans fight while pregnant” the woman goes on, not sure of why she wanted to defend her decision to the man. “And my...friends..have been watching my back”.

She gestures towards the duo which was now standing in front of the surrendering tank crew. Garfield reaches up with his trunk and grasps a startled and blushing Raina by the waist, assisting her in getting off of him. As soon as her feet were on the ground, he pats her on the head with his trunk and changes back into his human form. 

Raina was blushing like a madwoman and couldn’t keep her eyes off of the boy as he moves forward and begins to use some rope to tie the prisoners up, wanting to escort them to the rear.

“She has it bad” Blackfire teases, hand on her hip as she shakes her head.

“Hmmm”.

The Tamaranean turns and acknowledges the man. “In order to get Superman and the other two back to the city”.

He was lost in thought, not really thinking over what she was saying. He wasn’t about to yell at her for being out here while pregnant. Aside from the fact that she was from a world dedicated to war, his own wife had gone to Arkham Asylum while pregnant and played a vital part in taking down the Joker. 

‘She’s a lot like Harley’.

That brought other thoughts to mind. Her child which he believed she still wanted to give up. It would need a family and perhaps...well, Wayne Manor could always use another baby’. Strange thoughts to have in a war zone.

‘I’ll ask Harley later. For now? Focus’.

“Alright, let’s go. Are you sure you’re…”.

“What?” she asks curiously. “Able to face the man who did...those things to me? I am sure” she intercepts. A question still remained in his heart, but he didn’t have the will to ask it. Not at that moment. ‘Keep an eye on her’ he thinks. ‘Don’t let her bring him back to the city’.

He knew that if he did, the man of steel might never even get there, and if he didn’t he’d never face a trial for what he did. This had to be done by the book. “Are you ready or not?” the princess asks impatiently. 

Bruce nods and watches as the other two younger heroes approach. “We’ve cleared a path to the city. From the frontlines to there exist no more of Superman’s forces. Luthor is waiting for us to pick up the package”.

Raina was all business, managing to appear unscuffed even as the war raged all around them. “We’re on escort duty dude”. Bruce looked at the green youth and almost raised an eyebrow. ‘Dude?’

“Let’s get him back into the city then”.

The small group moves to the rear, though Bruce kept casting glances at the surrounding battlefield, gauging who was still fighting and who had defeated who. It was really a shock how well the battle had gone in their favor.

“Why did Luthor send you to get me?” he asks curiously. Blackfire was the one who answered and she decided to answer honestly. “Because Katana and Hawkman have already been evacuated and you’re the last one who really needs a rest”.

Raina nods along, agreeing with the woman’s summation. 

“Da, and he has a grasp of your psychological profile” she continues on from Komand’r’s point. “You wont leave unless you have another job to do of equal significance or importance so, here you are, escorting the villain known as Superman”.

They come upon an armed guard where the three they’d defeated in the initial battle were being held, and Superman was first amongst them. Grodd looked to be in the worst shape of all three of them, though if it were a contest Diana would not be far behind. She was shaking horribly, refusing to even look up at her captors. 

“You guys our relief?”

The solider was obviously battered and bruised. All of them were, having been cycled out of the battle for a rest. Batman was about to answer when Raina stepped up. “Da, but you are to come with us” she explains. They were about to protest, but she sensed even this, and managed to countermand them. “You are wounded, and tired. You pose more of a liability for your brothers and sisters than a help”.

That line of argument cut into the men like a knife, and they acquiesced, looking down at the tyrant who was subdued with even more kryptonite built into the gauntlets he now wore on his hands. Slowly he moves his head upwards, glaring at Batman and the group, though he settles on Komand’r. 

“Ahh, Komand’r” he teases, making her skin crawl as she fights every impulse inside of her to incinerate the man with a full powered star bolt. “Tell me, how is our baby?”   
  


“Podnimite yego!” Raina shouts, confusing the soldiers until Blackfire gives them an answer. “She said to get him up”.

  
She was shaking in rage, her fingers opening and closing as she makes a fist. She was going to do something, and Bruce was going to allow it as long as she didn’t kill the man, something he didn’t see happening at that moment.

The soldiers standing next to him yank Clark up to his feet, litting his shoes scuff against the ground as he tries to fight them. Raina looks on disinterestedly and glares before her gaze softens. Placing a hand on Blackfire’s shoulder, she rubs her gently and smiles. “I saw you fight tovarisch. You are brave. This...svin’ya...you are more than the sum of what he did to you”.

  
Garfield was by her side as well, adding his comforting presence as he forms into a cat and brushes himself against Blackfire’s leg. With a tearful smile she reaches down and picks her friend up, letting him nuzzle and purr against her. “You are all so kind to me…”.

Bruce nods and looks at Superman who most assuredly wasn’t liking the fact that his victim was being comforted. Curiosity settles in though and he wonders what Raina or Blackfire had planned. 

The Tamaranean princess puts Garfield down and allows him to change back into his human form, before returning her hateful gaze to the man who just continues to smirk.

In a quick, lightning flash movement, Blackfire kicks her foot upward, burying her boot in the Kyrptonian’s groin as hard as she possibly could. His eyes bulge out and he vomits right on the ground, unable to take the pain while he falls back to his knees.

The soldiers let him fall, wincing as they cup themselves, feeling that pain on an instinctual level while Garfield turns into a mouse fearfully and rushes up onto Raina’s shoulder. The grey witch lets out a little smile of her own and gently pats the green mouse, assuring him nonverbally that no such harm would come to him.

“Ngtrh’rffredler krepteh” Blackfire shouts in Tamaranean before spitting upon the man. 

She turns back to her friends and smiles. “I feel much better now…”.

“I can imagine” Bruce says softly, knowing that nothing would ever make what happened to her right. ‘Still, that was one hell of a kick’.

Blackfire turns back to the prostrate man who most likely was in the worst pain he’d ever felt at the moment. “Your child will not be like you” she says, attempting to drive the wedge deeper. “I have already resoled to...give them away…”. Saying the words alone hurt her, and they lacked conviction, but regardless she continues. “To a family who will love them and care for them so that they don’t ever become like you”.

Bruce waits, seeing that she was finished and can’t help himself as she begins to cry. He was always going to be a father first after all. He puts his arms around her shoulder and pulls her to him, comforting her with his presence while Beast Boy and Raina add their own arms to the hug. 

The soldiers, witnessing the strangest phenomena of their lives, a metahuman group hug which included the Batman, turn back to their job of the hour. The sergeant, drawing on a cigarette, gestures to his two subordinates, orders them to each take a hold of the man under his armpit and drag him away.

“And emphasis on the drag part of that” he says, removing the cigarette from his mouth and flicking it onto the man’s face. It didn’t have a physical impact, but right now? Humiliation was all they were going for. “I want him to be nice and muddy when we put him on display as out haul. Come on Easy. Move out”.

The men follow their leader’s orders instantly, and the party sets out over the hellscape with Batman following behind, still comforting the girl who had come to Earth and lost everything. 

‘I hope she calls Harleen’ he thinks, wanting the girl to feel safe, if only for the time their conversation would last. 

For now though? The war was over.

Or so he hoped.

**_Two Hours Later_ **

The sun was starting to set as the army of Gotham rested upon the beach, having taken their spoils out of the League camp to enjoy them at a more scenic location. Most of the soldiers of the opposing army had either surrendered or fled. Of the metahumans? All were captured. And the best part? 

Minimal casualties.

Gotham suffered fifty deaths amongst their rank and file soldiers, while the League suffered a whopping two thousand, mostly courtesy of the Amazons and Russians, though Luthor’s security forces had been very good as well.

They were able to do so because of the dedication and strength of the metahumans within Gotham, and they would never be forgotten for it. The only major wound they had to deal with in regards to their side was Vixen who had been shot in the thigh. 

Luckily for her, her boyfriend was there to spirit her away back to the city for medical attention. Other than that? Wounds were also very light, and thanks to the triage centers set up by Wayne Enterprises, easily handled. 

Now? They could celebrate the first in a long line of victories that would eventually, hopefully, free the world from the shackles of dictatorship that had been placed around its neck.

Ares found himself strangely calm as he sat on a fallen tree, his helmet off and his eyes set far away on the open sea. He could fell the war brewing, the power filling him, and yet? He wanted none of it. His heart was heavy and he desired no more of the clash of shields and swords.

‘I wish to find something else’ he thinks to himself, lamenting the fact that after thousands of years he no longer knew what to do.

“May I join you?”

He looks up to see Adriane standing before him, a case of what appeared to be beer in her hand. She was blushing and shrugs. “They did not have wine and that group of soldiers gave me this when I asked. Also, they called me toots. What does that mean?”

Ares laughs to himself and nods, taking the been and placing it before him in a spot both would easily be able to reach. “It is a man’s term for a woman I would say. Do not take offense. It is merely the talk of soldiers”.

Adriane sits besides the man and tries to maintain a respectful distance, but fails as her own body wants to be mere inches away from him. He reaches out and twists the bottle cap off of a beer, handing it to the woman before taking her own.

The Amazonian general smells the liquid and winces.

“It is good. Granted it is not as delicious as wine but it is quite delectable”.

“Do all mortals celebrate in such a way?” she asks, gesturing to the crowd of people gathered about campfires. Her eyes settle on Tora and Hawkman, the ice themed superheroine having pulled her boyfriend out to dance. She wrapped her arms about his shoulders and swayed with him, both smiling openly.

She brings the bottle to her lips and takes a sip, finding the taste rather odd at first before she decides that she likes it very much. “Many of them do. Drink and dance lift the spirits as you should know Amazon”.

Adriane had to agree, after all she had drank and danced with her sisters before, even her lover, but...watching Tora and Carter? She didn’t know if she’d ever experienced something quite like that.

She smiles and shakes her head, deciding to turn to more important matters. “Which one of us was victorious in our wager?”   
  


“I was” he says honestly, having access to this information due to his godly status. Adriane smiles and nods, faux sighing in her defeat. “Well, I congratulate you then Ares, god of war. You have bested an Amazonian general”.

“I only won by two”.

She laughs aloud at that and looks back over at the dancing couples. “I owe you a so called date now do I not?”   
  


“I was merely jesting Adriane…”.

“Are you saying you wouldn’t like to go on a date with me?”

She didn’t know why, but that thought hurt her, and Ares could feel it in her tone. He turns to her and smiles brightly, a hand tentatively moving up in the slight caution that she would tear it off for daring to touch her in such a way. 

His fears were unfounded though, and his hand lands on her cheek, caressing her softly. Ares admired all the curvature of her face, committing it to memory. Her bright blue eyes, the scar on her cheek, right beneath her eye. “Looking at you right now...this may sound foolish..”.

“No, no” she urges him on, scooting closer. “Continue, please”.

She was eager to hear what he had to say, and her heart was beating rapidly within her chest, the entirety of her training was screaming out at her that she was betraying what it meant to be an Amazon. She couldn’t help it though, and she knew that this would be a momentous part of her life. 

Ares smiles and continues. “I just...I wanted to say that, looking at you, the glow of the fire, the smell of the sea salt and the wind upon my face…”. He pauses, trying to collect himself for what was undoubtedly the most important part of his speech. “I find you to be the most beautiful woman to ever exist Adriane….”.

She blushes even harsher, something she would’ve thought impossible mere moments before. Before she knows it she is leaning into him, and his hands move to her waist, pulling her body into his. Their lips connect and both feel that it is the sweetest taste they had ever experienced. 

She murrs and moves into him more, wrapping an arm about his shoulder, urging him onto an even deeper sensual experience as his tongue gently teases at her lips, communicating a desire for entrance. She submits, lovingly, something an Amazon excelled at for someone they truly cared for. 

She opens her lips, relying on the man’s vast array of experience to guide them through this first for them. He was a adept teacher, and soon she feels her tongue against his. Neither warred nor fought for dominance. They just….were.

“General!”

She separates fiercely from the man and tries to steady her breathing at being caught in such a compromising position. ‘Stupid’ she thinks, chastising herself while turning to see a fuming Danae there. 

The woman had been released from her imprisonment in order to fight for the Amazons on this day, the women needing every single spear and sword they could get. ‘She has still not escaped her dishonor’ Adriane fumes mentally, turning to face the girl and a few other sisters who gathered about her in shock and confusion.

Ares was quick, a stratagem already devised in his mind. “I forced myself upon her Amazons” he says while standing, putting his hands out in hopeful supplication. He hoped that by offering himself up on a pyre to be burned by their anger might take their rage off of their general. 

Adriane would have none of it however.

“Stand down Amazons” she orders. “I kissed him back as eagerly as he kissed me”.

“You betrayed all that it means to be an Amazon!” Danae spits in rage. “Supplicating yourself to a man! Becoming the god of war’s plaything! How dare you?”

“How dare I what Danae?” she asks, advancing on the woman who cowers a bit at the imposing height and stature of their larger than life general. “How dare I seek out a calming and comforting hand? Warm eyes? A loving touch?” she looks away and sighs, knowing that she had to reach her sisters through gentleness and love. 

“I have seen us harden” she explains, putting a hand out on Danae’s shoulder, who surprisingly does not shake it off. “Become careless. We have lost our meaning” she explains. “Love and justice, were to guide us...but while the world burned? We sat safely upon our island. Hippolyta was as wrong as Diana” she exclaims, shocking the crowd. 

“We let pain decide our path, but life is pain” she continues, feeling Ares’ eyes upon her. “To deny it is to deny life, and to deny love, and joy, friendship and camaraderie”. Her little speech had drawn attention all up and down the beach, and all eyes were on her. “Look around you” she gestures. “We fought, and died, beside men and women of man’s world. Do you deny the kinship we now share with them? The brotherhood and sisterhood?”

Danae remembers a particular portion of the battle where she was saved from a rifle shot in the back by one of the League’s soldiers. She’d been saved by a man who had seen it, and brought up his own rifle in response.

“Our island...our way of life sisters” she goes on. “It is never going to return. We failed, though in that failure lay the seeds of our new hope. I...I hope you can understand”.

From the silence that dominated her sisters, she was sure that this was the case. Even Danae looked cowed, each of them going over what they had lost. “I give you a new order Amazons” she says. “Find a partner and dance. Be joyous, happy. Celebrate what he found for if we don’t, the weight of what we lost will surely crush us”.

The only thing that can be heard for a few moments is the crackling of the fires, and she begins to feel that her plan hadn’t actually worked.

Slowly, the first and bravest of the Amazons throw themselves into this brave new world that she had just outlined to them. They march over to the fires and select men or women at random, offering their hands of friendship and communicating their desire to dance with them.    
  
The Russians, never missing an opportunity to have fun, begin to play upon their gypsy guitar’s as some of their comrades are chosen.

“ Rastsvetali yabloni i grushi, Poplyli tumany nad rekoy…” one starts singing as his friends take up the song and boorishly join in. The Amazons let out shy little smiles as their partners lead them in their dances, taking up the battle cry of life.

All that is left soon, is Danae, who slowly looks over towards a campfire to see the man who saved her life. Adriane smiles as she sees her watching. “Go sister...live”.

Danae smiles softly, unsure of what to do but follows her general’s unspoken order regardless. “Hello…” she said shyly, offering her hand to the perplexed man. “May we dance?”

The soldier’s comrades begin to tease him though the man reaches up to take her hand, his own going to her waist and shoulder. Adriane wanted to laugh at the woman’s fish out of water expression, but she found that she didn’t have it in her. 

“You are quite adept at handling this new world politic”.

She turns to Ares and nods, moving into him again. He gets the message and soon they are swaying in each other’s grasp in the same way that their comrades were. “You said I was the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen…”.

“Uhhmm…”.

“Did you mean that?” she asks, feeling strangely self conscious. “After all, you are one who has lain with Aphrodite herself”.

He senses the reason for her asking and he nods, deciding to be completely honest. “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen” he says while his hands move up and down her side, somehow warming her even through her light armor. “I have learned that there is more to beauty than how a woman looks” he says. “Her soul, her spirit...they make her more than the sum of her physical beauty”.

Adriane smiles, loving how tongue twisted he was getting, unable to fully articulate what he wanted to say. She stops him by pecking his lips and then laying her head upon his chest. They sway together against one another, the sound of singing and the waves crashing against the beach behind them the soundtrack to their love.

“I never thought I’d fall in love with a man...especially not the god of war”.

It was a hard admission for her to make, but one she desperately needed to put to words. Ares just smiles and holds her close. “And thus the god of war was slain. Not by force of arms, nor the swinging of a sword, but by the words of an Amazon”.

He leans in and kisses the top of her head. 

“I love you too Adriane...general”.

She loved that word upon his lips and part of her hoped that it had a greater connotation to him. Undoubtedly it did, and she’s comforted by the feelings that well up within her.

She was no longer afraid.

The festivities continue all along the beach for most of the night, the adrenaline worked up during the day being too much to be spent in a few hours. John Constantine himself was engaged in a poker game set up in an impromptu poker game in which his girlfriend was hardly invested.

  
Vixen had been bandaged and her wound cleaned as soon as the battle ended. Luckily for her it was merely a flesh wound and wasn’t serious. Still, it hurt, and that was why she was sitting in her boyfriend’s lap, watching as he cleans up in cards.    
  
The supermodel was idly playing with his hair as he stared down Floyd Lawton, sitting at the opposite end of the table with Killer Frost and Cheetah flanking him on either side. He had an amused expression on his face that didn’t sit well with the englishman. 

‘Still’ he thinks, turning to the smiling Mari. ‘I can’t lose with me good luck charm’.

“Come on Constantine. Show your hand so Floyd can wipe your pockets clean” Cheetah says with a smile that was mimicked by Killer Frost. “I think you’re gonna be disappointed there mate”.

He puts the cards on the table and smiles wide. “Straight flush”.

Deadshot looks nonplussed, and that worried the man. Was he just playing at being stoic, or was he somehow going to beat the man out?

The marksman puts his cards down on the table. “Royal flush”.

Cheetah and Louise cheer at the same time, pumping their arms up and down before smothering their shared boyfriend in kisses. “Ohh sod off..” John says petulantly, crossing his arms over his chest as the man leans across the table and pulls his winnings towards him.

“Thanks John. Now I have enough to get these gorgeous ladies a gift” the man teases. “What are these anyway?”

“Gold pieces. What do they look like mate?”

Mari soothes her boyfriend by leaning up and pecking his lips. “Don’t worry about the money Johnny” she says before nuzzling his nose. “One of the perks of having a rich girlfriend”.

He smiles and rolls his eyes, his hands picking her up gently as he gets out of the chair and places her back in it so as not to hurt her. “I gotta go take a leak” he says. “Nice. Real classy John”.

  
“What? Should I say tinkle instead?”

  
The black woman smiles at his joking and shakes her head. “You just be you baby”.

“Keep my seat warm?”

“Ahh so I’m a seat warmer now?”

“Well if you wanna play a hand yourself” he says while rifling through his pocket and placing some more of the coveted gold ingots before his girlfriend. “Be my guest”.

“Floyd let me play!” Barbara shouts out excitedly, wanting to try her own hand at poker. Louise shoots that idea down with a huff of shock. “As if kitty cat. You don’t even know how to play”.

“I was watching him. It’s not that hard!” Barbara defends herself with.

John smiles and begins walking towards the outer edge of the beach where the lack of light would hide him as he took care of his business and released the beer he’d been drinking liberally into the surf. He unzips his pants and goes to work, feeling the stress of battle melt away from him at the victory they’d won.

Sure there were other things to deal with in the world, but that could be left to others. What he needed, well, what he really wanted, was a vacation.

‘Just me, Mari, a beach and a bottle of lotion to rub all over that beautiful body of hers’.

He takes a moment to look up, out into the darkening sea and stops at the shapes forming on the horizon. He saw sails, though they were practically indistinguishable from the surrounding darkness.

‘Trireme’s…’ he thinks to himself, seeing the same general outline on these ships as he had on the ones that brought their Amazonian allies into Gotham and were indeed still beached at the docks. It all clicks together instantly, and he rushes to finish urinating, zipping himself up and almost catching his vital member in the metal contraption that sealed his pants. 

‘Ohh shite...shite...shite...shite!’.

He rushes back up the beach, drawing attention while waving his arms and shouting. “Cannibal amazons!” he shouts. “They’re coming. Cannibal Amazon!”. He knew he sounded like a madman, but he also knew that whatever was going to come out of those ships wasn’t going to be good.

He gets to the table and sees Mari struggling to get up, readying herself for a fight. “Sorry love, not happening” he says, scooping her up in his arms and rushing towards the open section of Gotham’s wall. “JOHN!” she shouts out, beginning to hit at his shoulder as they move past soldiers preparing to fight. 

“PUT ME DOWN! WE HAVE TOO…”.

“No…” he says back. “You have to get to safety where you can recover and then I have to get back here love. No arguing”.

“But…”.

“Only butt I’m willing to look at right now is yours on your way to a safe location” he explains setting her down at the wall where a few other soldiers were already preparing their previously abandoned defensive positions. “You hear me?”

She nods, knowing that there was no use fighting the man on this. “Good” he says, taking her face and kissing her lips. “I love you”.

With that he rushes back into the fight, and Mari is left to limp to a safer area. She was hoping against hope that the troops would be able to hold off the Amazons.

  
**_Back at the Beach_ **

The ships slam into the sand, coming to a halt when the power of the women at the oars can move them no further. As soon as that is made clear, they abandon their posts and work on throwing themselves over the side of the boat, impacting harshly against the sand.

Tantalus was much slower, more methodic, and he smiles out over the bow of his flagship while his Amazons scurry animalistically across the sand, heading straight on into the mass of writhing humanity that had formed itself into rudimentary defensive positions.

The Amazons were the first to meet their sisters, forming a phalanx while their dancing partners from mere moments ago stood behind the defensive walls, firing through clearings in the shield wall that allowed their muzzle to exit through. 

“AIM FOR THEIR HEADS!” Adriane shouts to the soldiers, turning to view their right flank which was being held by the Russians. 

They were firing their Ak47s and RPDs with reckless abandon, but their aim left much to be desired. The bullets impacted harshly against the flesh of their former sisters, but it did not stop them and they rushed onwards.    
  
They crashed against the Russian soldiers and began to tear them apart with their teeth, devouring them before their horrified comrades eyes. Raina was in shock, and she stood beside Terra as both tried to summon their powers.

One Amazon thrust herself forward and threw her body atop the blonde’s who only had enough time to bring her arm up in an attempt at self defense. The woman bites into the exposed appendage, drawing a scream of pain from the blonde geomancer.

“Plemmyannitsa!”

The Amazon is shook off by Vertigo, who focuses his mind on saving the girl who was the last of his family. The blood crazed warrior woman shakes and sways, losing her balance as she falls into the sand. Raina quickly moved to Terra who was sobbing at the missing chunk of her arm. “Hold on comrade!”

She tries to lift the girl but finds it harder due to her struggling. When she looks up and sees three Amazons baring their long canine like teeth before her, she knows she wont have enough time to use her powers. She prepares to die, glad that she got to take part in at least one major battle on behalf of the Soviet Union.

“RAAAAAAAAWWWWRR!”

The inhuman sound descends from above her, and she looks up to see a massive green tyrannosaurus rex there. With the practiced ease of one who has done this many times, he swings his tail outwards and throws the three Amazons down the beach, allowing a few soldiers to come up in a firing line to unload their rounds into the others.

It bought them time, and the young man shrinks back down, moving over to the grey skinned girl and her wounded friend. “We need to get her into the city” he says, looking at the walls that seemed so far away. 

  
They turn back to Vertigo, being distracted by his screams as the Amazons who he was keeping at bay for his niece managed to get the jump on him. One bites into the side of his face and he flails about as the others work on ripping him apart.

“Dyadya!” Terra shouts, making to move through her pain now that her uncle was dying.

“RUN TERRA!” Vertigo shouts, reaching to his side and retracting a grenade. He pulls the pin and drops it to the sand, dying moments after as his throat is slit. The Amazons didn’t let up or care that this weapon was in their midst as they continue to feast.

When it explodes their bodies are ripped into and thrown in multiple different directions, though they crawl back to continue feasting. A few distinct pops are heard as a round from a Kalishnakov finds its way into each of their heads, putting them down for good.

Raina turns to see the colonel walk up with a few men, all brandishing weapons. “Lieutenant, get the men to safety. Follow the Amazons. We shall cover you”.

“But colonel…”.

“Follow the Amazons” he repeats, moving forward with the volunteers who all raise their rifles and begin to fire with accuracy into the horde of women, drawing their attention away from their besieged sisters.

He turns for a second, wanting to issue his last command. “Form a defensive line at the wall! This city must be defended! Not one step backwards!”.

Raina felt like sobbing, though she holds it in as she looks back upon the beach where the wounded and dying were being devoured. She sees him, Tantalus, walking forward with a malicious gleam as he feasts upon the arm of a fallen Amazon. 

“Raina…”.

His voice was soft amidst the din of battle and she turns to see the colonel smiling at her. “I am so proud of you. Lead these men to victory”.

The rest of the soviets, mostly wounded, had fallen back and were now relying on the ever retreating phalanx of Amazons to cover their retreat. Any moment now, they would be unable to join them. They had to get behind the line now. 

Garfield turns into a horse and Raina quickly levitates the wounded Terra Markov onto his back, climbing astride her friend herself. “Go comrade. Go!”.

With that Garfield takes off, moving forward towards the line and just barely making it behind the Amazons. Ares and Adriane were in front, fending them off with cleaves of their sword and spear respectively that sent head after head flying. 

“Beast Boy! Escort the wounded to the rear!” Adriane shouts before casting a glance at the men who were staying to allow their retreat. She nods to the colonel across the carnage strewn beach and watches as he reloads his rifle, dropping the abandoned clip into the sand. 

“ONWARDS FOR THE SOVIET UNION!”   
  


“URRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAHHHH!”

The men shout and join in on their colonel’s mad battle charge, slamming into the ranks of Amazons and giving them reason to pause as they take casualties. Soon though, the Russians themselves are being ripped apart and torn into, though they each go down fucking.

“Take this you bitch!” one soldier screams, slamming his knife down into the eye of one of the screaming banshees before him. Two more jump on his back, forcing him to retract the knife and turn as they bite into him.

“You want some too huh? C’yort!”

All around his men were fighting and dying, doing both marvelously well. Anatoli raises his rifle again and blasts open the head of a new challenger, watching her dead body hit hit feet. He steps over her, raising and picking his shots with practiced ease as if he was simply at a shooting range and not involved in the worst battle of his life.

‘Perhaps this is merely the best though…’ he thinks to himself, smiling serenely as Tantalus comes closer. The former king had twisted his body into massive proportions and was chomping on the half eaten body of one of his men who hadn’t been able to retreat up the beach.

He swings the butt of his rifle out, smashing open an Amazon’s head with ease. ‘Prepare the children Nadya’ he says mentally, hoping that his wife could hear him. ‘Their papa is coming home to stay’.

He only had two men left, and these two stayed near him, covering their rear as the women encircled them all around. They didn’t last long, but they lasted just long enough for Anatoli to make it to Tantalus. Their screams of pain were what urged him onwards, and he lets loose a burst of automatic fire into the creatures leg.

It screams out in pain and reflexively reaches down, grasping the man harshly and lifting him into the air. He squeezes, and the pain forces the famed KGBeast to drop his rifle which clatters into the pandemonium below.

He struggles in the cannibal king’s hand, though he doesn’t give the monster the satisfaction of begging for his life. No. He just stares into the lifeless black eyes that try and see deeply into his soul.    
  


“Where is my beloved little man…”.

“Your little princess is tucked safely behind our walls...defeated”.

The king suddenly squeezes tighter and causes Anatoli to gasp for breath. “I will not tolerate your games for much longer whelp” the creature roars. “Where is Diana of Themyscira”.

Anatoli smirks and slowly looks up at the beast who was now threatening the city. “You will fall...like Superman before mudak”. While the creature wasn’t looking he reaches to his belt and pulls the pin of the string of grenades he kept on himself just for this purpose.

Unfortunately, he thought that the beast wasn’t looking, when in fact he noticed. With a screech he throws the man away onto the beach, watching as he explodes within a mass of his slaves. They were thrown this way and that, none of them quite prepared for the nasty little surprises that these explosive little nuisances caused.

Tantalus looks towards the city, and specifically the destroyed section of wall that still protected it. With a deafening roar he screams his anger and frustration and coming all this way to still be so far from achieving his goal.    
  


He knew what had to be done. The city was undoubtedly weakened by Superman’s siege. Tired and craving peace. He would find a way to turn the city in on itself, and soon, very soon, he would have the woman he loved back in his arms, and the world in front of him for the two to take as their own. 

It was all so close, he could taste it. For now though, he’d focus on replenishing his army’s strength. After all, with so many bodies left behind there was no reason for them not to sate their appetites.

He was a generous king.


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> D: So I've just realized how little our hometown heroes of Gotham have featured in this story as of late. I sincerely apologize for that but with such a large cast of characters for this part of the story, and me still attempting to make you care about them, it can be hard, especially when I try and keep to a schedule. Anyways, a bit of humor on this one because well, wanted to lighten the mood. Love you guys!

**_Gotham City Field Hospital_ **

Chaos.

That was the only word that would fit the scene that was before the man. Chaos. Patients were filling every bed available, and the excess wounded were laid out on tarps next to these bunks, awaiting treatment or an available bed.

Some didn’t have to wait long as they either expired on the ground or were transferred to a bed following the death of one of the other occupying patients. The doctors and medics rushed about, placing bandages over the open wounds which seemed like they were inflicted by sharks, or some other creature with sharp teeth.

Something else shocked Luthor though, and it was visible on practically all of the wounded. 

Putrefaction.

The skin and flesh around the wound would turn a deep dark red in the early stages, but in the more advanced cases the wound would turn green or even black as the flesh died. Penicillin and other antibiotics had no effect whatsoever upon the spread of the infection and indeed the only way to prevent death was to amputate the infected limb.

If it was a limb that is.

Many suffered bites on their shoulders, sides or in other areas that were not amputable. In these cases, the rot spread through the patients and they simply died. Their bodies were covertly taken away before the others could see them fully rot through, though the growing pile of bones and rotting flesh outside of the medical tents had started to cause a stir. So much so that they had taken to digging pits and using a backhoe to push the bodies in, where they were then burned to ash by a flamethrower to ward off the possibility of disease.

The medical apparatus that Luthor had designed had gone from underutilized to over maximum capacity in the matter of one night.

A hand reaches out and grabs his leg, startling him for a moment before he turns to look down at a wounded man who’d had his leg cut off.

“Water….water...please…”.

“Mr. Luthor!”

Mercy, the ever faithful servant, had seen such a request coming, and she rushes up to deliver a canteen to the man’s lips. She didn’t mind getting down in the dirt, and she cared even less for her ruined skirt and pantyhose as she tries to comfort the man. 

Lex gets on his knees besides the woman himself and smiles, trying to assure the man. “You did good out there. Gotham survived and so did the army”.

He left out the fact that many did not however, though the wounded soldier probably already knew that. He didn’t need to be reminded. He lets the canteen fall away from his lips for a moment and he shakes his head. “It’s hopeless..hopeless…”.

  
Luthor didn’t have anything to say to that, though he desperately wishes he did. Instead? All he could do was move on, searching out any familiar faces.

“Mercy...stay with him for a little while. Okay?”

She eyed him questioningly, not understanding why he would have her detach from his side before coming to the realization that Lex was hurt. She could see it in his eyes, though he did his damndest to hide it. He knew that they’d lost people, so many, and he wanted to make sure that at least some of them survived.

She reaches out and takes his hand, squeezing it to try and let him know that it was okay for him to be weak in front of her, that he could rely on her if he needed to fall for a moment. But still, she acquiesced to his unspoken plea. 

“Yes Mr. Luthor”.

She turns back to the soldier who had fallen into another fit of confusion, undoubtedly caused by the fever he had. “Mama...mama…”.

  
“Shh...it’s okay sweetie. It’s okay. I’m here”.

  
He loved her. He really did, and if he wasn’t desperately trying to fight off the panic that came with such a shocking assault following such a hard won victory he’d tell her. But for now? He needed to reorganize. Come up with a plan, and all of this had to be done while there was still an army to fight with.

He steps up and rushes through the medical wards, checking each tent and trying to settle his eyes on a familiar face. He didn’t, and instead all he’d seen so far were what felt like miles and miles of wounded men and women, desperately crying out for relief from their pain.

“Morphine...morphine please!”

“Just fucking kill me!”

He blocked them out, or he tried to though he knew that these screams would haunt him for the rest of his life. The worst sight he’d stumbled across was what was being called “Dead Man’s Row” by the medical staff, though they didn’t say that out loud.

When Lex had bumbled inside, he was greeted by the stench of death which was accompanied by the horrible view of those men and women who couldn’t be saved by amputation. Their flesh was practically sloughing off of them, though they stubbornly refused to die. 

They all did though. In the end there was no fighting it.

He kept going, hoping that perhaps a medical tent had been set aside for metahumans alone. He hadn’t been able to get a straight answer from any of his doctors, each of them being too busily engaged in trying to save the lives of the patients directly under their care.

He didn’t fault them as nobody had time to deal with his problems.

‘Do it yourself Luthor’ he urges mentally.

Finally he did find a tent which seemed to be less heavily populated and he could sense that inside was what he was looking for. He opens the flaps and steps in, happy to see a makeshift ward that wasn’t filled to the brim with the dead and wounded.

His eyes instantly fall on Raina and Beast Boy, who were both joined by Blackfire in circling around a bed. “Lieutenant Raina” he says, moving forward and trying to contain his joy at finding the empath alive.

“Garfield...Komand’r..” he goes on, even more ecstatic.

When he looks in the bed and sees Terra Markov, save though now missing an arm, he feels a good amount of worry melt away. ‘The kids are alright’. They weren’t exactly “kids” in the strictest sense of the word, but as the youngest heroes fighting to defend Gotham he couldn’t help but feel that way. 

“Hey Lex” Gar says, giving a light wave and a slight smile devoid of warmth. Blackfire nods while Raina salutes. It was clear they’d been through hell. Terra most of all. The bald man moves to her bedside, taking a seat from across the room and moving it down to where he could see the young girl.

She stared blankly up at the tent’s ceiling, and Lex couldn’t help but reach out to take her remaining hand in his. “I heard about your uncle” he begins gently. “He was all I had left in the world…”.

Her words hit right at the core of the man’s heart, and he wanted to hold her at that moment, soothe her and tell her it would be okay. But Lex? Well...he wasn’t the hugging type. But he would try and comfort to the best of his ability.

“I know” he admits. “He was the last of your family. And he died to make sure you lived. I think he loved you very much if he did that”.

Terra doesn’t see anything, though the tears that roll down her cheeks give it all away. 

“But….I was wrong on that too” he goes on. “He wasn’t the last of your family”. Lex takes a moment to look around the bed where her friends were assembled. “I think you have a lot of people left that care about you and need you still”.

“I am broken!” she seethes, waving her bandaged stump in a fit of rage that seizes her. “I am bespoleznny! Useless. Dead weight…”.

“Nyet!” Raina silences her, moving over the bed to glare down at the blonde. “You are a serzhant in the red army Tara Markov” she says, rubbing her forehead lightly and hoping to use some of her ambient emphatic powers to calm her down. “You are a brave woman, and my...drug…”. It was hard for Raina to use that word. Friend. It had been so foreign to her until recently. 

“Yeah dude” Garfield chimes in. “You kicked serious butt out there. I think your uncle is super proud of you”.

“On Tamaran you would be honored for your wound” Blackfire says, adding her own two cents. “Wear it with honor, to serve as a monument to your Uncle’s bravery and love”.

Terra was clearly outnumbered, and the mere fact of that was enough to cow her into a kind of quasi submissions to their words. She squeezes Luthor’s hand, in desperate need of their comfort. Slowly she turns to Raina. “I...am I...am I still under your command Lieutenant?”

The empath smiles slightly and nods. “Da. And I have not released you from it, nor have I given you orders to sulk”. Raina was doing a good job of hiding her own panic as she was now effectively in control of the remaining Russian forces which amounted to her, Terra and six survivors of the beach attack. 

She was going to need all the help she could get to keep her disparate group of soldiers together. ‘Luckily she has Garfield with her’ he thinks, glad for small blessings. “You are all going to be okay. I promise. We’ll sort this out”.

He didn’t know if he believed his own words, but he did know that they were going to fight. They had too. 

“Luthor”.

He turns, glad to see the man and glad that as usual he had a knack for finding exactly who he wished to speak to. “Batman..Batwoman…”.

The two walk into the tent and take a moment to address the teens. “You guys make one hell of a team out there” Harleen congratulates with a smile and a thumbs up, trying to remain the upbeat part of the dynamic duo. “Wow...from you Batwoman? That means a lot”.

She smiles at the green boy and looks over at Blackfire who seems to wither under accusing look. “And you young lady are a little too pregnant to be fighting bad guys”.

“On Tamaran…”

“This is Earth” Harleen says, moving forward and rubbing the girl’s shoulders. “So, as your first Earth friend it’s up to me to put some Earth rules and restrictions on you. No more fighting bad guys until the baby is born”.

Blackfire sighs and nods, knowing that there was no sense in fighting the woman who held a secret strength beneath her charming and comforting facade. “Okay….”.

“Say yes Batwoman, I’ll listen to you because you’re the bestest buddy of mine”.

Blackfire laughs and turns to her friends, enjoying the fact that even Terra had cracked a smile at the interaction going on in front of her.

“Yes Batwoman…”.

“Yes Batwoman whaaaaat?”

Blackfire huffs and shakes her head in false exasperation. “Yes Batwoman I’ll listen to you because you’re the bestest buddy of mine”.

“Good”.

  
Harleen follows it up by booping her on the nose for added emphasis. “And don’t you forget it”.

Batman stood beside Luthor, and turns to start a conversation. “What is the situation at the wall?” Luthor had an answer for that fortunately. “The Amazons and the rest are holding, but for how long? We’re not sure. I’ve been able to strip a lot of the soldier’s manning the other sections of the wall and focusing them on the break but...I’m not sure”.

It was a smart move. The Amazons had enough warriors that were strong enough to effectively cut the city off. Without Superman’s army outside the manpower it took to hold was drastically decreased. In fact, many stayed on the wall simply to avoid overcrowding the city.

Still...it was worrying. 

“Our Kryptonite based weapons are what we invested most in” Luthor says, pulling Bruce out of the tent and leaving Batwoman to speak with the kids for a moment as they discuss strategy.

“Soooo…” Batwoman goes on, wanting to keep them focused on happier thoughts. “With all the stuff going on I gotta say, you guys work well as a team. Any thoughts on that?”

Raina and Garfield look at one another and then back at the woman, apparently having had a conversation like this before. “Well, da, the colonel and I...before he passed, spoke of making a team out of the younger heroes here...to be mentored by our older counterparts to best conduct international operations with…”.

“She means yes” Garfield says, cutting off Raina’s long speech which would undoubtedly go off on several tangents in relation to international law. Raina looks at her and scowls a bit, but quickly lets him pick up as she knew that he’d be better at sharing this information.

The boy looks to Terra and then Blackfire who each seem more than interested in what he had to say. Batwoman too, though she was quietly filing all information away for later discussion with Bruce.

“Raina and I were discussing it, and we came to an agreement that the world needs some young bucks...well...actually, just me as a buck..you as all does…”.

“Garfield” Raina growls.

“Right, right. Anyways we came to an agreement that we at least wanted to continue working together” he says, drawing a smile from Blackfire who knew exactly why the two would want to “continue to work together”. She keeps mumb though, not wanting to embarrass her friends. “And we also wanted to invite you, Terra, and you Blackfire, if you plan on staying here, to join us”.

“Wow!” Harleen says excitedly. “Sounds super cool!”.

  
“Eventually we would offer membership to others” Raina goes on, explaining more of the backdrop to what was being planned. “We want to mentor young heroes and perhaps give them a place to call home while they learn how to properly use their skills”.

Terra looked down at her arm and frowned, feeling that she shouldn’t accept such an offer because of her wound. She could still use her powers of course, but...she felt incomplete.

“I...I do not know”.

“I’m in”.

Blackfire’s quick proclamation was in and of itself a surprise and everyone turns to her. “I do not really have a home back on Tamaran anymore” she says with a shrug of her shoulders. “Returning and fighting my sister for the crown, a crown nobody would want me to have anyways? Well, it sounds a bit like a far fetched dream”. She sighs and looks down at her stomach, shaking her head.

“I’ve lived most of my life on a planet that hates me for simply being...me. And then I come here, and experience the worst that mankind has to offer”. Here she pauses to collect herself, before looking back up and smiling. “And then the very best…”.

She looks at her newfound friends, of which Batwoman was included. “I wish to stay and...assist in being a hero”.

Garfield stands up and walks over to her, holding out his hand for her to shake. “Welcome to the team Blackfire” he says. Komand’r was not interested in shaking his hand however, and she simply wraps up the shape shifting teen in a tight hug that lifts him off the ground. “Thank you...Garfield. My friend”.

  
It was clear that she was beyond excited at the prospect of being a part of something large, and that manifested itself in the strength of the hug she was giving the boy. Eventually, needing breath, he taps her side. “Blackfire...need...to breath”.

She goes wide eyed and lets him down, having forgotten her own strength. “Ohh X’hal...I’m so sorry Garfrield!”

The boy breaths in and smiles back at her, assuring the excitable alien that everything was okay. Raina turns to Terra and reaches out to rub her shoulder. “I could order you to join us if I must…” she teases, something that was normally out of the character for the stoic girl.

“I...I don’t know”.

“Come on Terra” Beast Boy adds. “It’ll be a lot of fun. Not to mention we’d be doing a lot of good for the world around us”.

“Please Terra”. Blackfire reaches out to stroke her fingers through the blonde’s hair. “It simply wont be the same without you. We need you”. This sentiment shocked the girl who wasn’t exactly expecting to be “needed”.

“Do you mean that?”   
  


“Duh” Garfield teases while sticking out his tongue. “You can turn the very Earth against our enemies comrade. The name Tara Markov will strike fear into the hearts of capitalists...well, bad guys of all stripes and ideologies” Raina collects herself, “everywhere”.

Terra looks at Batwoman who just nodded back at her, knowing that something like that to aspire to would bring her out of her funk. “Alright then. Da. I’ll do it”.

The newly formed team lets out a cacophony of claps and cheers at that revelation and Batwoman thinks on what Jason and Barbara would think of being involved in such a team. ‘Jason probably would have wound up leading it’ she thinks morosely, trying to keep her sadness in check. 

“There is...one more thing”.

“Ohh? What’s that?”

Raina turns to the Gotham based vigilante and tries to accurately and succinctly put to words what needed to be said. “We would like a sponsor city of our team, and we would like a hero, or a group of heroes to oversee us” she explains.

“Yeah, I mean, as awesome as we are? We might need backup from time to time” Garfield says.

“And it would be nice to learn different skills” Blackfire picks up, wanting to add her own thoughts to the chorus of ideas being flouted about. 

“Ahh, and you’re thinking that Gotham might be the place for that huh?”

The group nods at the woman’s question. “And let me guess...you want Batman and I to oversee you guys?”

Again, the nods and a chorus of affirmative answers.

“Da”.

“Yeah dude”.

“Affirmative”.

“That would be nice!”

Harleen looks over all of them, so eager to use the skills they had for the betterment of the people around them. They’d already sacrificed and lost so much, and yet, here they were offering to do even more. 

“Well...I’d have to talk to Batman about it buuuuttt...I really like the idea” she admits, smiling wide at their joy. ‘You guys...you remind me so much of them’.

“So…” she snaps out of it again, not able to think too much on her personal problems with everything going on. “Do you guys have a name that you want to use picked out yet or no?”

Garfield nods and smirks.

“Yeah. We were thinking...the Titans”.

**_Amazonian Forward Position_ **

They watched as their former sisters snarled at them, desperate to bite into their flesh. They were unrecognizable and no more than monsters at this point. That was enough to unsettle Adriane and her sisters who sat back at their defensive works, ready to form a phalanx should the need arise.

The cannibals had become smarter though, or, more likely, they had been kept back by Tantalus. As long as they stayed where they were, the soldiers didn’t open fire and after months of practice the men had become excellent shots.

Not to mention the fact that Floyd Lawton regularly patrolled the wall.

‘It really is true that he never misses’ Adriane grimaces to herself, remembering the sight of the Amazons dropping before her, taken out by an almost invisible force that they hadn’t encountered until coming to Gotham. 

Man’s world was particularly effective at killing.

“Do you need rest?”

“No Ares” she mumbles out, leaning against her spear. “I am fine”.

It was clear that she wasn’t as she hadn’t been able to sleep a wink the night before. Not with all that was happening in front of them. She was dead on her feet, and all could see it. “Go to the manor. Rest. I shall take over until you return”.

She turns on her lover violently. “Who are you to tell me…”.

She slips and falls into his arms, her sandals having caught on a rock as she was too tired to pay attention and lift her feet as she moved. “Someone who cares for you” Ares says. “Should that have happened in battle, you would have fallen to them and they would have eaten you alive”.

He looks up and calls out for two Amazons. “Danae, Listeria...take the general back to camp please. She needs rest”.

The two warriors move forward and Adriane makes to resist but yawns loudly again, her eyes barely able to stay open. “Ares…” she says weakly, making to plead her case to the god of war. He smiles and shakes his head. “No. Go and rest. When this is over you will thank me”.

A stretcher is brought out and the exhausted woman is laid upon it, needing sleep for the past two days practically as she hadn’t slept between battles. ‘She is an excellent general’ he thinks to himself, remembering how she had ensured that her warriors were cycled out so that they themselves could rest.

‘She attends to their needs before her own’ he reminds himself.

With that issue taken care of he returns his eyes to the battlefront. He knew that inevitably they would have to give. The city was too tired, it’s reserves too slim. Luthor had done much, but there was only so much that actually could be done.

Something strange was happening before him though, and it seemed to ripple through the infected Amazons. The cannibals were moving to the side, opening up a path, and he could only assume that it would be for one person, and one person only.    
  
The Amazons who were left to guard the wall drew themselves into a phalanx, blocking of the entrance into the city. It was a Thermopalyae waiting to happen. One makes to hurl her spear though Ares, standing before them, halts them with a raised hand. Surprisingly she listens and for that he was glad. The last thing they needed was a slaughter. 

“Ares, Ares...old friend. How are you?”

The king had reverted to his human form and was now walking towards the army, his hands held behind his back and a malevolent smirk on his face. “We are not friends cannibal”.

“Ohh come now” the handsome man teases, having gorged himself on flesh. “Why should we not be? After all, we were both thrown away by the gods, the ones who should’ve embraced us, and for the mere fact of us being who we are”.

“Who I was Tantalus” the god of war corrects. “I intend to put that behind me. Now I fight for mankind”.

“Ahhh” Tantalus teases out, turning to his Amazons and chuckling as if some great epiphany had occurred to him. “Why?” he asks suddenly. “I wish to create. Not destroy”.

It was an answer that was quick and succinct, and one that bothered the cannibal king of Siphylus. “Why? And what would you create that these pesky mortals would not destroy?” he asks, pointing towards the city. “Our gods, once feared and loved in equal measure, lay forgotten due to their servility to them. They rejected my ways because of their fondness for their pets”.

“They rejected your ways because you are a madman, and one who walks upon the weakness of others”.

“No. They rejected me because they were afraid of power. True power” he maintains. “They wished to secure it all for themselves and yet not use it. To stay up in their gilded mountain and look down upon the mortal planes. You did as well, but you broke free of that chain! Like I did!”

Ares was quickly growing tired of this conversation, and he didn’t want to dwell upon it any longer. “Tell me Tantalus. What is it you want that you have convened this truce of sorts? What are your demands. Tell the Amazons so they may mock what little manhood you have”.

The women snicker at that, enjoying their new camaraderie with the god of war. Tantalus was less impressed, and indeed his entire army snarled in a desire to slay their remaining sisters.

“I want my beloved”.

“Hmm...Diana? The former and disgraced princess?”

“Not disgraced no” he defends. “Arisen. To a higher plane of belonging. She is stronger than the entire might of her sisterhood combined”.

Ares just shrugs. “Surprise to me” he says. “She fell rather quickly to one of our own. I didn’t even have to face her though I would have relished the opportunity to fell her in combat”.

“Yes...quite regrettable, but I can assure you that your army only succeeded because of the lack of food deserving of her attention” he teases, licking his tongue along his lips. “If she had...well, we wouldn’t be having this conversation now would we?”

Ares remains silent, as does the whole of the frontline, awaiting the inevitable dropping of the shoe, so to speak. “Well, you wanted to hear my ultimatum yes?”

“I would rather like it if you get to the point yes”.

“Ahh defiant to the end. Very well”. The man stops to sway his arms out as if this proclamation was the most important in the world. “I want my wife. And in return? I shall let the citizens of Gotham City leave” he explains. “It’s not like they can go far, and this little empire is going to be all ours soon anyways so it’s really just a head start. In return? The Amazons, all of them, are gifted to me”.

“WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER PIG!”

This proclamation from one of the Amazons drew ecstatic agreement from her sisters who all raise their spears in solidarity. Ares was also quite impressed by the show of force, and even more so when the soldiers of the regular army join in with random oaths and jeers.

“FUCK OFF CANNIBAL! GOTHAM IS OURS!”

“TRY AND COME NEAR ‘EM AND WE’LL BLOW YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!”

Ares smirks back and sweeps back his hand over the makeshift army that nobody would have bet money on winning before their victory over Superman. The bonds that had been forged between them were unbreakable, even by time as Ares knew. 

In sixty years there would still be talk of those who were “at Gotham” and those who were there would eagerly embrace one another when they saw them. Brothers and sisters in arms. “You heard them” he teases out, crossing his arms over his chest.

Tantalus frowns, but he wasn’t exactly displeased. “Very well” he says aloud, shouting to ensure all could hear him. “If we take this city, we will devour every last morsel of flesh within it. Not man, nor woman, nor child shall be spared. Mark my words Ares”.

The god of war smiles and turns to the Amazons, hoping one would have an appropriate response to such a horrid threat.

He was not disappointed. 

“ONE WORD CANNIBAL! IF!”

A chorus of laughter echoes out across the field as the Amazons enjoy the bravado, that wasn’t at all false that comes off of their sister’s tongues. Tantalus was even less amused by this and snarls at the god before him.

“You will regret this decision Ares. Just like your father before you!”

“Zeus?” Ares asks nonplussed. “I don’t even think he remembers you let along regrets casting you into the Underworld, which, unlike me, is where you’ll be going back to false king”.

The assembled soldiers and warriors whoop and holler, though this time it was in favor of the god of war, something that would’ve been unthinkable a few months ago.

“Now. Scurry back to your safe haven Tantalus. Prepare for a battle”.

“You have one day to reconsider my very generous offer. After that I cannot promise what shall happen. After all, my women are very...hungry”.

“I have steel if they require a meal” Ares says, shaking his sword at the mass before him. Tantalus huffs and turns away in a rage, pushing through the crowd and back to the ships where his headquarters had been made.

When he left, Ares turns back to the Amazons. “Which one of you is the fastest?”

Nobody says anything, and none of the women volunteer. “Come on now don’t be bashful. Andromeda it is you is it not?”

A dark skinned woman nods slowly and steps out of line so that the god could see her. “Excellent. Leave your spear and sword here. I wish for you to return to Wayne Manor and when Adriane awakens, tell her what has happened. Also…”.

“We already told them” a man from atop the wall shouts down. “What?”

“Yeah we already told Luthor what’s going on and he’s relaying it to the Amazons back at the manor” the radioman says, showing off the communication device he held in his hand. “Ohh..”. Andromeda deflates at this, having been somewhat excited to be what was amounting to an integral part of the war.

“Ahh...quick field communication. What Themistocles would have give to have that at Marathon” he says to himself, shaking his head. ‘War has moved too fast for me. Perhaps I really should give it up’.

He smiles at the woman volunteer, placating her with his warmth. “Note it down that Andromeda, speediest of the Amazons, was never beaten in a fair run by a mere mortal, but by the nefarious technology of those less skilled than her at foot races”. The girl blushes and nods, thankful for the jest which served the double pronged purpose of softening the blow and salvaging her honor.

“What do we do now...Ares?”   
  


They had addressed him by name, making it all but certain that he was respected as a leader and commander. “Now sisters?”

He looks back at the army opposing them, patiently waiting for the right moment to strike. “We wait”.

**_Wayne Manor_ **

Elise was busy cleaning up after the demoralized Amazons.

Well, she was trying to. Stacking their weapons by the door, cleaning up the mud as they made themselves at home to lick their wounds and eat. Their tents and camp were overcrowded now, and some of them had been washed away by the torrential rain.

“Ahh please do not…”.

A loud crash was heard outside in the hall and Elise sighs as Alfred shouts out angrily. “Bloody hell!” It was very rare for the man to curse, and when he did, it was usually very warranted. “I...I apologize thoroughly…”.

“That was an ninth century Ming….ahhhh blast”.

“What’s going on Alfred?” Elise asks, moving out to where the old man was standing before a bashful Amazon and a mess of shattered porcelain before her.

“She...she….AHHH!”

The man about turns in frustration as Martha and Mary come down the stairs and move up to their grandmother. “Nana can we have a snack?”   
  


“Sweetie...yes...sorry…”.

“Are you okay nana?”

They could sense her frustration and she knew that was a bad thing. If she was losing it for them to see, then it was too noticeable. She had to keep her cool. She had too.

Just then she notices two Amazons walking in with muddy sandals, tracking the residue all across the carpets. That...set her off. “WHY CAN’T YOU AT LEAST WIPE YOUR FEET?!” she shouts out angrily, drawing the ire of the women who refused to be talked down to by a mere maid. 

“What makes you think you have the right to order us about slave of man?” one asks angrily, an audience forming as Martha’s guards move up beside her and her sister. It wasn’t clear how this would end, but it was clear that they most certainly weren’t happy about how things were going. They’d lost too many of their sisters and the sadness was creeping in on them again.

They moped and even shed tears while mourning within the confines of the mansion, taking it over as their own personal headquarters. Bruce and Harleen had allowed them to stay here, but it was impossible to assume that they knew this level of advantage would be taken. 

What’s worse was that the children had begun to watch and even emulate the behaviors. Martha had twice woken up in fear, crying over what she thought was the end of the world. “If the Amazons are beaten...what happens to us?”

Well, Elise was tired of it. Tired of it all, and she wasn’t going to put up with it any more. “You are supposed to set an example for the young women in this house” she explains, advancing on the now nervous warriors who knew that touching the headstrong maid would result in a firm punishment for them.

“And what do you do? You mope, and cry and act like you’re just helpless little girls. You don’t clean up after yourselves, you take advantage of our kindness and most of all you are spitting in my son in law’s face and telling him that he was stupid for even bringing you here here!” she shouts in a rage. “Act like women and grow a pair of balls!” she screams, not reconciling the strangeness in her own statement as she was sure that her meaning would be understood.

“Now...you will clean up your mess, you will shine your swords and stack them in a neat pile at the doorway. Then you will apologize to Alfred, Bruce, Harleen and then Martha, Mary, Rosaleen, Jason, Victor, Charles and Bruce. Do you understand me?”

Before the woman can open her mouth Elise enlightens her as to what not following those simple instructions would mean. “If you don’t I will grab you by the hair and kick you out on your ass personally. Or I’ll have Martha’s tough bodyguards do it because I wont have you insulting my family in their own home!”

Nubia and Hilaria, both standing behind Martha, grunt and nod, having come to enjoy the older woman through her interactions with her grandchildren. The Amazons were sure they’d do it, and right now? Wayne Manor was the only dry place available for them. “I...I…”. The woman didn’t know what to say in the face of such a commanding presence, and she felt the urge to obey mixing with her near outright refusal to simply listen to the words of a mere mortal.

“You would do well to listen to her Amazon”.

  
The voice came from the door where two robed figures entered, their faces hidden by the cloth they wore about them. “She speaks with the true heart of one who has cause for anger, though she has respected you more than you deserve”.

“Who are you now to speak in such a way to us?” the leader of the group asks, though the robed figures ignore her and move forward towards Elise who shelters her granddaughters behind her in case there was a threat.

“Pardon our interruption kyria...we humbly ask for permission to enter your home”.

“Umm...who are you?”

At this point Alfred had returned with a broom and dust pan, not noticing the two newcomers as he swept up the remains of the vase on the ground. “Blasted...war...Amazons…” he muttered to himself, feeling this all to be a great injustice. 

The two robed figures reach up to their robes, preparing to reveal themselves. “Forgive our rudeness, and the rudeness of our sisters” the second one proclaims before the robes are dropped. The women’s faces are revealed in a golden and resplendent light that casts itself out the entirety of the entry hall into Wayne Manor, and upon seeing the faces of the two women, the Amazons drop to their knees in supplication.

The robes fall away completely, leaving the two stola clad women exposed in all their Olympian glory. Slowly, Hera bows before an unbelieving Elise who maintains her ground and guard over her granddaughters. “I am Hera, and this is my step daughter, Athena”.

“Ohh…. Well...welcome to Wayne Manor” Elise begins, unsure of exactly what to say before she seizes on the fact that their sandals were clean. “Thank you for wiping your feet outside”.

  
Hera smiles good naturedly and raises her hand, gesturing to Athena to carry out her own orders. The goddess of war and wisdom instantly gets to work, pointing towards the doorway. “Amazons...you will go wipe your feet, clean your weapons and leave them, under guard” she stresses, “at the door”.

It didn’t take much more than that and the warrior women stumbled over one another to do as they were bidden, though that wasn’t the end as Athena begins to move about the house. “You will clean this place until not a speck of dust remains! To repay such kindness with apathy! You insult us!”

She points a finger at the contents of Alfred’s dust pan and the aged butler watches in Amazement as the vase reassembles itself and then levitates to its stand where it was before. “My word...thank you” he says, not forgetting his manners at all.

“You are quite welcome Alfred Pennyworth” Hera says before smiling down at the peaking around her nana Martha. “Hello there Martha Elise Wayne”. Slowly the goddess of Motherhood descends to her knee and reaches out to the girl. “I am so happy to meet you ligi epida kai chara”.

“Umm...I don’t mean to be...rude? Perhaps, but why are...well, that is to say, why would a goddess come here?” Elise asks in a halting tone.

Hera smiles and gestures at Martha. “For her of course, though, this would also apply to you Elise Quinzel”.

“Me? How?”

Hera looks at the ground and sighs. “I know that you would prefer I be honest with you and get to the point as you mortals would say, am I correct?”

Elise nods to the woman, though she doesn’t hesitate to offer them the dining room to speak. “Ahh yes, as I seem to know, Alfred had some tea and cookies ready” Hera says, listening upstairs as Athena upbraids yet another group of Amazons.    
  
Martha rushes in first and pulls out a chair for the woman, offering her a seat. Hera was all smiles as she taps the girl’s cheek, sitting down at the table. “What a delightful one you are princess”. Elise and Alfred trail in behind them and take their own seats, shellshocked as they are. “Ohh!”. Mary was quick to remember what the adults had forgotten and fetches a set of tea cups from the cabinet, setting them down before the three while Martha works on pouring.

“Thank you sweet pea” Elise says. “Miss Wayne, you are ever so kind” Alfred praises. “What fine treatment! It would be hard to find this even in the days of our worship young ones” Hera exclaims. 

She takes a sip of the delicious drink offered to her, and smiles over the rim at the older couple, Mary and Martha taking a seat next to the goddess. “Is it okay if we stay?” Martha asks, excited for new company as always. Hera nods. “Ohh yes Martha. You and Mary should stay of course”.

Slowly she reaches into the air and closes her eyes, a light emanating out of her hands as something appears in it. “In fact...I might have a few gifts for you Martha, though they are much less gifts and more responsibilities”.

“Ohhhh!”

The girl’s were enthralled by the glow and each of them watch as a lasso appears in the woman’s hand. She places it on the table before Martha before adding a tiara and gauntlets to the pile as well. “Are those really for me?” Martha asks curiously.

“If you prove worthy. Yes”.

“Woah, woah! How will she know if she’s worthy?” Elise asks, overwhelmed by events as a thud is heard from above, coupled with more of Athena’s screaming. Hera smiles cryptically, not willing to give a straight answer. “Simply touch the lasso Martha”.

The little girl looks at her grandmother and grandfather in all but name and questions with her eyes. “I’m not so sure sweetie…”.

  
“I promise that she is nothing but safe to do so” Hera says, taking another sip of tea. “You have my word”.

Something about her and the way she spoke just lent credibility to her words, and almost against her will and better judgement, Elise nods along. “Go ahead sweetie...you can touch it”. The rope glowed bright upon the table, and Martha had to stand on the chair to reach it. Slowly her little hands grope forward for it, a tight look of concentration upon her face. 

Her fingers were mere centimeters from it, and in another second, right upon it. Martha grasps it and pulls it back towards her, ignoring the seductive siren call of the tiara and gauntlets for a moment to focus on the lasso. 

She feels it between her fingers, giggling at how soft it was. She turns to Mary and smiles, offering it out. “Feel this Mary!”

Her sister makes to and as she reaches her hand out to touch it, she goes right through it as if the lasso wasn’t there. Everyone is momentarily confused, except for Hera who had a knowing smile on her face.

“What?”

“It appears that the champion of the Amazons has been found” Hera says vaguely before reaching out to grasp Martha’s hands. “You are worthy Martha Wayne. Be proud”.

“Aww...so I’m not?” Mary asks sadly, though Hera could detect no jealousy. ‘I hope it stays that way’ she thinks to herself before turning to Elise and Alfred who were holding each other in confusion. “What? Wait, woah you mean like Wonder Woman?”

“Diana was a failure” Hera says, “unworthy to carry that title or these gifts that I have taken from her, and for good reason”. She turns back to Martha and smiles. “You are to be a symbol of hope my child, my wondrous child. A new Amazon for a new world”.

“Wait, so you’re making her the Queen of the Amazons? Just like that?” Elise asks, trying to keep up and feeling as if her head was spinning. Hera just chuckles and shakes her head. “Ohh no, of course not. At least not yet. You are to be the Queen of the Amazons Elise”.

“What?” 

This time it was Alfred who asked the question, as Elise couldn’t even open her mouth. Soon her body sways and her eyes close right before she falls directly out of the chair, fainting onto the carpeted floor and starting a melee of worry as her family crowds around her. “Elise! Ohh Elise. Ohh dear she’s fainted”.

Hera places a hand over her lips, self chastising for what she had inadvertently caused.

“Perhaps I should have said all that more...delicately?”


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I couldn't get this out last night guys. I was just too tired. Hope you enjoy it!

**_GCPD Holding Cells_ **

Commissioner Montoya was concerned with the rapid deterioration of the situation, though she was acting as any good cop had to. Working at enforcing the law and keeping order. Still, with so many people having thought that the worst was behind them? A new threat coming onto the scene was not something they wanted or necessarily needed.

“She’s in here Batman”.

The caped crusader followed the woman down the hall of mostly empty cells, crime having gone down within the city which was no shock considering how many capes and soldiers there were about. 

She reaches forward and grasps the vigilante’s arm. “Do you know what you doing? Like, are you one hundred percent sure that this is a good idea?”

Bruce just nods, having already discussed it with Luthor. It wasn’t that it was a good idea, it was just that it was the only feasible one at the moment, and with the one day deadline fast approaching? It was going to take a fair amount of work to get all the moving pieces in order, though this was the only one he himself would have to take responsibility for.

Montoya gives in and lets go of the man’s arm, letting him move forward to the cell that held the power drained Wonder Woman. “Diana…”.

  
She slams her frail body against the cage, rattling it and trying to push her face through it. Bruce doesn’t even move, unaffected by her rabig charge as she bites empty air, her teeth clattering against each other loudly. Soon she herself can understand that she wasn’t going to be able to bite the vigilante, and slowly backs away from the bars though her bony fingers continue to grip them.

“Coming to gloat Batman?”

“No…” he stares, shocked at how the woman was quickly deteriorating. She was nothing more than skin and bones now, apparently needing human flesh to survive as Constantine had told him. ‘Reminds me of the wendigo myth’ he thinks to himself, looking her over. She was going to die, unless she ate human flesh, and nobody, him included, was willing to feed her such a meal.

She would die, and many thought that that was exactly what she deserved.

“Then what reason do you have for being here?” she taunts, apparently having already known of Tantalus’ arrival outside of the city gates. Superman himself and his other captured cronies were in the cells adjoining her own, and each had been more than perplexed and frightened by the changes they’d seen in Diana. Superman especially as the former Amazon had taken to taunting him through the bars.

The defeat tyrant looks away, trying to avoid even seeing the man who’d so easily and thoroughly beaten him.

“You know exactly why”.

He turns to the escorting police officer and gestures upward with his chin, telling him to open the cell, which instantly put the men on edge. As he steps forward, the keys jingling in his hands, Diana laughs menacingly, stepping back only as a pistol is pointed directly at her head. 

“Don’t try it”.

“Ohh I wont Batman. Trust me...I wont” she says while licking her lips. “After all, you’re bringing me to Tantalus are you not? To spare yourselves? How pathetic”.

Bruce says nothing, and his silence is taken as confirmation by the woman. The guard finally manages to unlock the cell and step in, the three men behind him keeping their weapons trained on the woman who was a certified cannibal. They were shocked that Superman hadn’t know, then again, they hadn’t shared with the League what they learned from the Amazons.

“Stay still”.

“I wouldn’t dream of moving officer” the Amazon says while watching as he swoops down behind her to try and place the power inhibiting handcuffs around her wrists, which would serve as a fine addition to the muffling power of the neck brace she wore.    
  


She was telling them anything but the truth though, and as the guard makes to strap the binding device upon her she rapidly turns and grasps him by the neck, switching their positions and taking the man hostage. With a quick snap of his wrist he drops his pistol, and the others bring their own up, desirous of killing the woman.

Bruce stops them, placing his own hand up and urging them down. The last thing he wanted was for the police officer to die, and he knew that he couldn’t lose Diana. Not when she would be the one thing to drive Tantalus on to where he wanted him.

“Now...things are a little different aren’t they?” the cannibal queen slithers out, showcasing her sharp teeth and licking her tongue out to rake along the man’s neck. “Batman…”.

“Quiet!”

She hated grovelling and begging, even if it was directed at another person. She simply wouldn’t stand for it. Bruce however was understanding, and nods to the man in quiet communication of the fact that he wouldn’t let him die.

“Put her down puta!” Montoya screams out angrily.

“What? And get rid of my one available bargaining tool? No, I do not think so”. She continues to trace up and down the man’s neck in a mockery of of affection, making it clear that she was trying to taste him and ready herself for a meal. 

“What do you want Diana?”

Bruce didn’t see it, but the cell to the opposite side of Diana held the Flash, whose identity had been revealed during his booking. Barry Allen watched the events unfold with a keen interest, and so did the redheaded Thanagarian in the cell beside him. He moves over and gestures at the coffee mug she had left in her cell from breakfast.

“Shay, please give me your coffee mug”.

The Thanagarian was confused for a moment, but as she looked at the situation occurring before her, she saw the tactical routes laid out before her and realized what Barry was planning. He, unlike Batman and the police, had an unfettered view of Diana’s cell through the bars. The coffee mug?   
  


Well, it would serve nicely for what he had intended.

She nods and quickly moves across her cell, snatching up the porcelain drinking vessel and sliding it through the cell. The handle broke off, but in the end that made it even easier for the mug to make it through. Barry smiles and hefts both pieces of the broken item in his hand. “Thanks Shay”.

  
She nods and lets out a reserved smile, her depression over the events of the past few days not having left her at all. Barry, now having the tools he needed, turns to the opposite side of the cell and lightly throws the mug up and down in his hand. Diana was distracted, and the last thing she was thinking about at that moment was her imprisoned former colleague to her right.

“What do I want? Is it not obvious?” the disgraced princess huffs. “I want out of this cell, and I want to return to Tantalus. The world as you knew it is over regardless….” she exclaims. “We will rule it as king and queen, and feast and fuck to our hearts content. You will lose, especially if you fight. Surrender and we might let some of you live. Breeders for future meals. Cattle”.

Barry most certainly didn’t like hearing that, and he throws the mug up higher, steeling his resolve for what needed to be done. When it comes back down he grips it as hard as he can, squinting his eyes to ensure he was on target. He only had one shot at this, and he needed to make it work. 

The space between the prison bars wasn’t helping his confidence either but...he knew it would fit.    
  
“Hey Diana?!”

The woman turns, forgetting for a moment that she was in the middle of a hostage situation as Barry calls out to her. As soon as her eyes land on the speedster he lets loose, and the mug goes flying right through the bars and impacts harshly against her face, crushing her nose before falling to the floor and shattering.

She lets out a startled scream that barely sounded human before dropping the cop in pain. He tries to scurry away before even hitting the floor, though it was a premature action as Diana was quick to recover. Luckily for the officer, who Diana was attempting to descend upon with horribly sharpened teeth, Barry was still flash. 

He lets lose with a throw of his second object, the mug’s handle, which sails through the air and catches Diana right in the eye, imbedding itself deeply and destroying the organ. She stops her chase after the guard and moves back to scream in pain, bloodily digging the object from her destroyed eye socket. She turns and sees Barry as being where the unorthodox projectile had come from. The speedster glared back at her, now knowing and being disgusted by what she and the rest were.

Before she can do anymore than scream in pain, Batman rushes in and tackles her to the floor, picking up the power cancellation handcuffs and slamming one side onto her exposed wrist. He capitalizes on her weakness and pain, and roughly jerks back her other arm, securing her completely and binding her. 

She struggles on the floor, letting out unearthly screams that shake everyone to the bone.

“I’LL FEAST UPON YOUR FLESH BARRY! WHEN TANTALUS TAKES THIS CITY, I’LL USE YOUR SKULL AS A CUP”.

The speedster was nonplussed, or at least he gave the appearance of being so as Batman pulls out a medical syringe and injects it directly into her, administering the strong sedative he’d undoubtedly need to keep the woman under control.

Her wild movements and frothing at the mouth slowly cease as the drug takes effect, and the last sight she sees before closing her eyes is the speedster looking down upon her.

Bruce slowly gets up, grasping the prone woman and throwing her over his shoulder as he does so, lifting her carcass as if it was no more than an empty sack of potatoes. Everyone doubted that she weighed too much at this point anyways.

He makes to step out of the cell, looking down at the police officer who was now panicking as he sat against a wall, fearful at how close he’d come to an excruciating death. “You’re okay” Bruce says simply, not being anywhere near where Harleen was when it came to giving comfort.

The officer didn’t acknowledge the black caped vigilante and instead it is up to his fellow officers to comfort the man who was like many others, and quickly reaching his breaking point. Before Bruce leaves the GCPD lock up though, he turns to Barry and Shayera, both dressed in orange jumpsuits, and nods, thanking them without words for what they’d done to save the officer’s life.

They don’t say anything, and he was glad for that. He was also glad for the fact that not everybody was like him. Unrepentant and unsympathetic to the damage they’d done. ‘The path to hell is paved in good intentions’ he reminds himself, realizing that they hadn’t set out to set up a murderous regime and had instead wished to help the world.

In the end, he hoped that they could be rehabilitated and redeemed.

He hopes.

“Are you really sure about this?” Montoya asks yet again, following alongside the man. “I am”.

“Mierda…”.

“Make sure to keep a steady stock of kryptonite around his cell” Batman says, gesturing towards the sulking dictator. “We don’t need him getting out, and we aren’t one hundred percent sure that he’ll just be contained with the power cancellation tech”.

“We’ve got our eyes on it” she says, hoping to comfort his worries. Indeed they did, as boxes of the debilitating green rock where located in strategic places about the cell. Not to mention the red sun lamp fixture that hung above the man of steel’s cell, courtesy of Lex Luthor himse.

“Batman..one more thing?”   
  


He stops to hear the commissioner’s words to him, though it was clear he needed to go. “Be safe out there” she begins. “Gotham is going to need you after all of this, and...well…”.

“I will be commissioner. Count on it”.

With that, he turns and walks the unconscious Amazon out of the GCPD holding block, moving to the upper levels where he parked the batmobile in the underground garage.

Montoya nervously looks at her watch, having been appraised of the one day grace period set by Tantalus. They were rapidly approaching that marker and she wasn’t exactly sure what was planned to be able to fight them off or even...if they could.

It was a frightening thought.

Still, nothing in the vigilante’s body language gave it away that he was nervous though she doubted she’d be able to tell if he was. 

‘Trust Batman. He hasn’t let you down yet’.

With that thought she turns to the speedster and appraises him honestly. “You did a good thing” she begins, wanting to at least thank him for helping to save one of her officers. She walks towards the cell, wanting to get a better look at the man. He doesn’t seem willing to meet her gaze however, and averts his eyes as soon as she gets close.    
  
“But you haven’t even come close to making what you’ve done right”.

Upon that, he does look up, and he stares the police commissioner in the eyes. “I know. But we’re going to fight tooth and nail to make it that way. You have my word”.

She didn’t quite know what to make of that, and even if it sounded sincere enough she knew better than to trust a criminal just upon his words alone. No. She’d give it time. He’d hopefully prove himself.

Hopefully. 

“Maybe. It’s up to the courts to decide if you even deserve that chance”.

With that she turns away, leaving the prisoners to their thoughts, though each of them were ruminating on the fact that they were yet one more less. “Traitors”.

They turn to who had spoken, naturally Superman, and Shayera is the first to bite back. “I gave up everything, EVERYTHING!” she shouts, doubling down on the point she wanted to make. “Because I believed in you. I thought Carter was a fool for not seeing in you what I did. I...I can never forgive myself that it was the other way around”.

She slams her fist against the bars that contain her and looks down at the floor, shaking her head and trying unsuccessfully to bite back her tears. “I was an idiot. A damned idiot…”.

Barry had some words of his own.

“I believed in you too”. 

  
For some reason the disgraced hero looks up at his old friend, the words having a particular heaviness to them that weighs on the man’s heart and what little conscience he had left. “I did what I did for a better tomorrow Barry”.

“If you wanted a better tomorrow you shouldn’t have checked your morals at the door” the speedster accuses, his face set in anger. “Raping that girl, killing all those people? How the hell could you possibly think that would’ve made things better?”   
  


Superman didn’t have an answer for that question, and in the end Barry wasn’t interested in receiving one. All he wanted was a chance to make things right. Shayera meanwhile had retreated to her bed, turning her back to any onlookers as she cried.

Barry shakes his head and moves back into his cell too, having only one more thing to say to the man who’d been his leader and friend. “Fuck you. And fuck your future”.

“LIGHTS OUT!”   
  


Immediately following that proclamation the lights that lined the cellblock flicker, leaving everyone in darkness aside from Superman who sat in the ambient light of the red sun generator atop his enclosure. He was illuminated for anyone to see if they so chose, but he couldn’t see outside himself.

He sat there, his head bowed as he wondered how it all went so wrong. 

He’d never have his answer though, as Superman was like many other tyrants and not prone to deep self reflection. Any failure would undoubtedly be of someone else’s making in his mind, and his downfall would have nothing to do with his own actions.

No. Never. Impossible.

He was Superman after all.

**_Lexcorp Shelter Site_ **

“Lex it’s all ready”.

The bald man reaches down to the communicator that was at his hip, unhooking it and bringing it to his ear. “Good. Now get yourself and everyone else out of there Mercy”.

“Will do Lex”.

He could sense that there was something else bothering the woman, and as he looked out over the military personnel setting up defensive positions along the adjoining streets of Gotham’s version of time’s square, he knew he had time to address it.

“Is there...something you wanted to say?”

A silence on the other end of the line tells him that indeed the woman wished to say something, and it was undoubtedly very important. “Well...yes, but I’m not quite sure how to ask it”.

  
He leans forward on the railing that keeps him from falling two stories to his death and smiles, happy for the vantage point that the tower provides him. “Well, perhaps the best way is to just ask me”.

“It’s never that easy”.

“With me it is”.

She had to admit that that was a very apt description of her boss, and slowly she collects herself, breathing deeply as she walks out of the tunnels that the man had built initially as bomb shelters when the city was threatened by the league.

It had been an ambitious project, and one that was ultimately unnecessary which was a blessing as if it had come to it the tunnels and bunkers would have been insufficient to keep the population of Gotham safe.

At least not all of it. 

“Lex...about Komand’r’s baby?”

“Yes?”

“I want to adopt them”.

“Ohh”.

Lex was a little taken aback by this statement, and he leans against the concrete wall. “I uhh...hmm”. He rubs the back of his head and neck, for once in his life having no clue what to say or do. “And when did...when did you think of this?”

“Almost as soon as she said she wanted to put the baby up for adoption” she admits. “I...I would understand...well...that’s not to say, even if it does happen, which is far fetched as it is...I don’t expect you to want to be a father or…”.

“Well hold on now” he stops her, a little insulted. “Who says I wouldn’t want to be a father?”

Mercy herself seemed to be disarmed by this, and quickly worked on damage control. “Well...I just didn’t think…”.

“No, no” he says with a sigh, not wanting the woman upset. “I’m sorry, I...overreacted to that. No, what I’m trying to say is I’d very much love to be the baby’s father”.

“Ohh”.

He quirks an eyebrow at the phone, knowing that Mercy couldn’t see his reaction. “You don’t sound so enthused by that prospect” he says, prying for a moment. “Am I...are we...not together anymore?”

“Ohh god yes we are Lex...damn...I’m sorry. No! No! It’s just...I’m a little surprised is all” she admits. “I...I didn’t expect you’d even be on board with any of this I’m just guessing”.

“Well...I am. And, I’d really like to do it with you”.

“Lex…”.

“Too mushy?”

He hears her light tinkling laughter from the other end of the line and it warms his heart. “Not at all. In fact? Get mushy with me more often”.

He smiles and nods, leaning out a bit and happy to take the momentary break she offered. “Well, I think we’d need to discuss it with K” he begins. “It’s a little bit of a grey area considering this wouldn’t be an Earth adoption so we need to talk to her first and foremost. I think you’d be a good mother though”.

“I think so too…”.

“What gave you this desire all of the sudden Mercy?”

He was curious where this was coming from as she had never let on that she wanted kids. “Well, it’s been there for a long time Lex. I’ve been working for you for so long, and it’s been the major identifier of my life. I love you Lex and I love being part of Lexcorp but…”.

“You want to be more” he supplies.

“Exactly. I...well…”.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to explain it to me. I feel the same way sometimes. Like...Lexcorp isn’t enough. Especially if I don’t leave it behind to somebody”.

“Lex...I love you”.

“I love you too Mercy”.

“I know how hard that is for you to admit” she jests, and Lex blushes, happy that she couldn’t see his reaction. “It isn’t hard for me to admit it…”. He hears her giggle. “It is and you know it...but it only makes it worth even more to me you know?”

Lex nods to himself. “Just get to safety Mercy. We’ll have a talk with Blackfire about adopting her child and I’ll get everything in order”.

‘Including this’.

He stops to pull the ring box he’d bought out of his pocket, admiring it before replacing it in his jacket. He’d been agonizing over it for weeks now. Should he ask her or not? On one hand he felt that their relationship, at least their open one, might still be seen as “too new” by the woman, though on the other he assuaged himself that it was anything but new. They’d built something on mutual trust and affection that had existed between the two.

‘After’ he reminds himself, wanting to calm the maelstrom that was in his heart. He takes stock of the work he’d done to secure Gotham, and finds himself pleased with it. Barricades and makeshift walls cut off all of the side streets, preventing an escape from the inevitable rush of the invading army.

The plan was crazy.

He knew it, and practically everyone else involved knew it. The civilians that had been evacuated to the walls within the already walled off city grumbled about the situation of course, but they all knew that they had come to far to abandon hope now. 

He just hoped, desperately hoped, that all this could be ended soon. The braying and snarling of the the hungry Amazons was not a comfortable sound to hear every night. 

**_Wayne Manor_ **

Elise awoke in darkness, and as soon as she notices that, she bolts upright on the couch, looking around frantically. When she doesn’t see anybody, part of her begins to become curious as to how much of what she remembered was a dream.

‘Hopefully?’ she asks herself while rubbing her forehead. ‘Everything was a dream. I’m in Harleen and Bruce’s house and the Amazons, Batman and Superman and the whole thing doesn’t even really exist’. That was a nice thought. A healthy, happy, normal family in a city that wasn’t being besieged by bloodthirsty lunatics every three seconds.

“Ahh, you’re awake” a voice calls out, drawing her attention to Hera who was seated in a chair next to the couch. “I was very worried about you. I knew that what I had to say was undoubtedly a lot to take in but I didn’t expect you to fall unconscious for hours”.

Elise looks at the Greek goddess curiously and shakes her head, throwing her legs over the side of the couch and trying to collect herself. “Ohh Elise...you’re just having a bad day. That’s all”.

“Some might see being chosen to lead the Amazons would be an honor” Hera accuses petulantly.

Elise was very close to passing out again, the pressure increasing about her head and throat as she takes deep breaths. “Where is everyone?”

She needed to get her mind off of the situation for a second, and Hera was only too happy to oblige. “Alfred, what a kind and gracious host, put the children to bed not too long ago” she says, listing off the status of the most pressing characters. “Your son in law and daughter came, checked on you and the children and then left, though it was through the cave. The faceless one went with them, though his wife has stayed with the children”.

“Ahh…”.

Silence descends upon the two for a moment, and Hera patiently waits with her hands crossed in her lap, for it to be broke. Elise humors her, though she lets out a breathy sigh before doing so. “Alright so….what’s the deal with me...and the whole queen of the Amazons thing?”

Hera smirks and stands, apparently wishing to have this conversation elsewhere. “Are you able to walk?” she asks while holding out a hand for the woman to take in case she needed it. Elise gets up, on her own power, and finds that despite the fact that her legs feel like jelly, she is able to stand. 

“Excellent” the queen of the gods says. “Let us walk”.

The two move out of the living room and into the main hallway, making their way to the entrance room into Wayne Manor. “You were shocked at my proposal yes?”

“Well duh!” Elise says before reigning in her petulance, not wanting to rouse the woman’s anger. “I mean...you gotta understand. Queen? Of the Amazons? I didn’t even know they were real until a few months back and now here you are telling me that I’m going to be their queen and my granddaughter the new freakin’ Wonder Woman and I’m just a woman from Gotham”.

Hera chuckles and opens the door, drawing the two out into the open night air, with its crisp and comforting coolness. “Ohh you are much more than that Elise Quinzel”. The two begin walking towards the Amazon encampment where a light guard was maintained over the crackling of fires.

“You see….I have been watching you and your family for a long time”.

“You have?”

“Uhhmm” the goddess assures. Her light smile turns to a frown and slowly she stops, merely a few feet outside of the front perimeter of the Amazons camp. “It is hard for me to admit this, but I made a mistake when I honored Hippolyta’s wish” she says, drawing in Elise’s curiosity. “Umm...what was it? I’m sorry but I’m not big on Greek mythology”.

“Less myth more fact now that you’ve met a living god isn’t it?” Hera asks.

“Well now wait a minute, just ‘cuz you call yourself one don’t mean you are” she defends. “I mean, Superman probably thinks he’s a god. No offense but he would have just as much right to call himself one if he lived back in ancient Greece”.

Hera makes to dispute the woman’s claim before realizing that she had a point. 

“What if there’s something above you you don’t even know about?”

A very uncomfortable point.

“That is not why we are here though at any other time I would appreciate such mental sparring” Hera deflects before smiling. “Another reason I have chosen you I might add. Though you want to hear of my folly that has cost the Amazons so much?”

“I mean...yeah? Especially if all of this is being dumped in my lap” Elise says, now a little bit more at peace with the possibility of leading the Amazons.    
  
Hera becomes solemn and looks at the moon, bringing herself back to those days. “War raged all around” she begins. “And the Amazons, before they received my blessing, were simple women who suffered...grave injustices at the hands of men” she explains. Elise knew exactly what she was talking about, something that Hera undoubtedly could sense and even already knew.

“In a rage Hippolyta called out to me and begged for safety. A path to defending themselves. Her rage was so great that I was moved by it alone, though the rage of her sisters was an added roar. So….I did. I meant to sculpt them into something more than they became however”.

“I wanted them to become arbiters of truth and justice. I wanted to show the world of man that women could be their equals and were worthy of respect. Much of my anger at the time was influenced by...well...my own, issues with my husband”.

“Ahh, I do know that Zeus likes sticking his thing everywhere” Elise says, regretting the words as soon as they are out of her mouth as Hera glares. “I’ll have you know we’ve been counseled and have worked through many issues. Zeus has not lain with another woman in centuries”.

“Sorry…”.

“You are forgiven” Hera sighs, shaking her head. “Regardless, I was wrong to separate them from man’s world entirely. They strove for all good things of course. Truth and justice are still the cornerstones of Amazonian law. But what use is it if they do not export these ideas to the world? Hippolyta and her sisters...they all stood and boiled in their rage. So much so that when a threat faced the world they were silent” Hera says. “They did not leave their island to fight for those ideals they held so dear, though they gave it lip service. Their rage against men, all men, blinded them”.

Hera takes a moment to reach down for a flower on the ground, and she plucks it free as she strokes its petals. “The man who made Hippolyta stone hearted? His name was Heracles”.

“That guy I know” Elise defends, having seen the movie released a few years back. “His name stood for glory of Hera” the goddess says, stonily looking off into the distance. “I despised him, and I worked to make his life awful. Indeed I succeeded. I heaped unfairness after unfairness upon him, and all because he was the son of my husband from another woman”.

Elise waits for her to finish, but something could tell her already that this was going a certain way. “I hardened his heart, and he, through his actions, hardened Hippolyta’s”.

“Well….I…”.

“You need offer me no words of comfort Elise Quinzel” Hera cuts her off. “I am at fault. All of it. The death of my beloved Amazons. Of Hippolyta. All of it, though Diana…”. The goddess stops to clench her fists, despising the woman who she knew had no reason other than selfishness and love blindness to make her become what she did. 

“Is also partly responsible”.

She turns rapidly to Elise and grasps her shoulders, scaring the woman for a moment. “The Amazons and all they strove to accomplish Elise? It must not disappear from this Earth. It mustn’t. Themyscira will never be their home again though, not with all the horror that happened there. They must take a new home, one within man’s world where they may scatter, an advisor kingdom to all of the world...many of which I wish to stay in Gotham”.

“Well what the hell?” Elise asks. “If they’re going to be all scattered out why do they need a queen? What’s the point?”

Hera smiles, already having prepared a more than adequate answer. “A queen is more than just a leader Elise” she explains. “She is an ideal. Someone to emulate. And you? You are the perfect candidate…”.

“Why?” she asks harshly, not sure why she would even want to pick up this mantle.

“Because you have experienced hardship akin to what Hippolyta has” she explains. “Yet, curiously, you did not harden. You did not hate nor cast your victimhood at the feet of the world. You prevailed, and most importantly you loved”.

Hera continues. “You provide wise council to your daughter, a warrior in her own right”.

“Why not her then?” 

“Because she is already a queen of the night” Hera supplies. “She wears a different symbol, and her path is already set. It is different than yours and her experiences too are different. She represents hope in many ways, something that I find comical considering her choice of outfit and her husband”.

“Yeah well...keep all that to yourself” the older blonde warns, not wanting her family’s nighttime excursions to become public knowledge. Hera smiles and makes a zipping motion across her lips, promising without words to keep the Wayne family secret.

“I also chose you because they need someone to guide them” she explains. Hera looks out over her warriors and smiles. “Trained in the art of war they are, but in taxes, jobs and love? They are not”.

Elise feels like this all made sense, but in the end she was still petrified of such a responsibility. “I...I don’t know” she says. “The world has changed” Hera says, ignoring the woman’s discomfort for a moment. “They will adapt, and they will be strong. They will become who they were always meant to be” she explains. “An ideal. A symbol to aspire to. It was wrong of me to think that by taking them away from the world that I would make either better. Women and men, most of them anyway” Hera chuckles, remembering the myriad of different workings in relationships in man’s world. “Need one another. I am no fool, and I could see the jealousy on the faces of her sisters when Hippolyta was blessed with Diana, though…a curse now is a more accurate description. Already they begin to fall in love with their comrades from man’s world”.

She smiles to herself and remembers a certain important aspect of such bludgeoning circumstances. “My own son..whom I have mistreated for far too long, has captured the heart of their general”.

“If...Ares right? Ares is your son?”

The goddess nods and Elise can’t help herself from giving advice which part of her mind realized would only further Hera’s opinion that she should be queen. ‘Dammit...still gotta do it’.

“I think you should go and apologize to him” she says.

“Ohh...no, no...I couldn’t. He’d never wish to see me. He’s so angry with me. I can sense it. Believes I never loved him”.

Elise wouldn’t stand for that and she quirks an eyebrow. “From how it sounds? He has a right to be mad and you, as a mother, need to come to terms with that and try to make it better. He’s your son. Don’t you remember holding him in your arms?”

Hera indeed did and can’t help the tear that leaks from her eye. “He was such an adorable baby...a gift. I...I don’t know where we fractured. When I stopped treating him as if I loved him”.

“Well...it might be too late to fix that honestly” Elise admits. “But it’s still on you as a mom to try until you’re dead”.

Hera is silent, letting the words that the woman spoke sink deeply into her mind. “You are correct Elise. Yes. While I walk upon man’s world I shall try and mend things with my son. He shall not go back to Tartarus”.

“Are you going to help us with the whole cannibal thing?” Elise asks.

“I cannot” Hera says sadly. “To do so would be to interfere in the affairs of man’s word and that is forbidden to us now. If I were to fall, Tantalus would become nigh unbeatable and that cannot be allowed to happen”.

“Figures”.

“Have heart Elise” Hera chuckles. “Have faith in the strength of your armies and trust that you will prevail. The gods are on your side”.

“What about training? Mystical weapons and all that jazz?” Elise asks. “I mean, I’m good with a gun but really, I think I’m going to need to be more than just that…”.

“Elise worry not” Hera soothes. “I do not expect you to be as Hippolyta was. She was too warlike. Too defensive of her own realm. I need a wise queen. One who is secure in the strength of the arms of those under her, and in the wisdom of the brain within you. Your heart as well is what matters most Elise. May it forever guide you in what is just and true”.

The two fall back into silence, though it was a much more comforting one now. “Who’s going to tell the Amazons that some nobody from the Narrows is now their queen?”

“I will” Hera says. “It’ll be best for them to hear such a proclamation from me anyway. Regardless they will accept it as they will accept your granddaughter as their champion”.

“Yeah, about that, she’s going to be trained right?”

Hera smiles and nods, already thinking of what she had planned. She reaches into her stola and retracts a vial of a strange clear liquid. She shakes it, and then hands it over to the woman. “Her weapons and tools will not be enough”.

Elise looks at the strange bottle and sees how it glows, curiously she shakes it, and it appears, aside from the glowing, as a normal liquid to her. “It is the blood of my father, Cronus, mixed with the offered blood of Athena”.

“Annnnd?”

“Martha is to drink it”.

“Drink blood?” Elise says scandalized. “No way. We have enough vampire allegory in this house to last us a lifetime”.

Hera was unbothered by the woman’s outburst and merely continues her explanation. “This is the very essence of divinity, the cause without cause mixed with the daughter of war and wisdom, Zeus and...well another of his flings whom he swallowed named Metis, don’t ask”.

Elise continues to look, aghast at the thought. “Such a liquid will give her strength, the strength and wisdom of the gods. She will need it one day if she is to the saviour of man’s world.

“Alright, this? I can’t do without Bruce and Harleen’s approval? Okay? Just can’t do it”.

“Understandable”.

“I’m already in hot enough water as it is for bringing all of this on and making her a princess, okay?”

“Again, I understand”.

“I’m not getting in any more hot water with my…”.

  
Hera reaches out and places her hand over the woman’s mouth, silencing her continued protests. “For a third time...I understand”.

She takes her hand away and Elise nods, glad that the goddess of motherhood had accepted her argument. Both look back at the camp with affection and worry, Elise especially as she was now responsible for them. “Lead them in work and toil, war and peace, love and sadness Elise Quinzel”.

The blond turns to confront the goddess but finds that she is gone, at least for the moment. “And I will assist you in any way I can”. Her voice was still there though, which was creepy to the woman. Or maybe only she could hear it? Regardless, she absolutely hated the disappearing act.

**_Amazonian Front Line_ **

The sun was just beginning to rise over the sea, casting its warm glow over the drab and dark city, made only darker by the siege they were still enveloped in. Ares keeps up his position before his amazons however, and he doesn’t take his eyes off of the army before him. 

Tantalus had returned and was now waiting with baited breath for either Diana, or the end of the deadline. Nobody dared move, not a single breath being wasted as they knew that eternity was before many of them.

‘Batman….your plan better work’ Ares thinks to himself as Tantalus turns around to study the rising sun. “I have given you much time to ponder my offer Ares, son of Zeus”.

“And we gave you your answer in nothing more than a second malaka”.

“Such spirit Ares.Such spirit. Are you planning on dying here today with these pesky little morsels?”

“It would be my honor”.

  
An inaudible approval moves up and down the phalanx as the women hear his words, and each has a smile on their face, past hatred of the man being forgotten completely. “A pity...such a pity”.

Just then the roar of an engine could be heard, and everyone aside from the Amazonian phalanx breaks to see where it was coming from. They see the batmobile move up a destroyed on ramp to a highway that had original led out of the city before it was destroyed by the wall construction.

The canopy opens, and Bruce stands up, wearing his batsuit. 

He brings his hand to his ear and flicks on the comm link. “Harley, are you ready?”

“I am puddin’” she responds. “Got ‘em right in my sight”.

“Wait for my signal”.

With that he clicks off communications and glares at Tantalus who was still in his human form. “And who are you mere mortal? Surely you cannot be this...Batman everybody speaks of as if you were larger than life” he taunts, drawing laughter from his fellow cannibals. “I thought you’d be taller”.

Bruce doesn’t respond to the jesting and instead reaches down roughly into the batmobile, yanking up Diana by her hair and causing her to wince in pain and weakness. Her wounds are visible, and the entire invading army goes silent.

“RETURN HER TO ME!” he snarls.

“You want her?” Batman asks, throwing the limp body back into the vehicle and sitting down himself. “Come and get her”. With that the canopy closes and the batmobile rapidly speeds off, hoping that the king would take the bait.

He does, and soon the massive monster is back, charging at the gates.    
  
To his surprise, the phalanx breaks instantly, and the Amazons scuttle backwards in organized lines towards the walls where elevators await them. His own warriors try to catch them, but they are held back by the soldiers that line the wall with deadly accurate rifle fire. 

It wasn’t enough to hold them indefinitely but it did by the surviving Amazons and Ares time. He just managed to step up onto the ascending elevator when an amazonian cannibal grasped his foot. He slams down onto it, breaking her fingers and causing her to fall back into the maelstrom below.

They reminded him of piranha, swarming about within their former positions desperate for a bite of flesh. Now though, they thoughtlessly turn to follow their king who was chasing after the batmobile along the predetermined walled off path.

The Amazons follow and descend like a flood of water, slamming into the walls and bases of the cordoned off buildings, so focused on following Diana and Tantalus that they didn’t realize they were being corralled through the streets of the city. 

“What now general?”

“We wait until they pass and then descend” he explains to his curious soldiers. “We form a phalanx at their rear and ensure that there is no escape for them”.

“Sounds like a plan Ares!” one of the American soldiers shouts out while brandishing his m4 assault rifle. 

  
As the god of war watched the batmobile, and the oversized Tantalus speed away, the latter bumping into buildings with his shoulders in his mad dash for his lover, he definitely thought that this was indeed a good plan.

‘I pray it works’


	34. Chapter 34

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this was hard to write. Long day. My depression got a little bit of a hold on me so I'm sorry if any of this is bad. Like all great writers, I did what they did to write a good story. I got drunk! So this chapter might be a drunken trainwreck disaster. If so, I'll fix it tommororw. Nite all!

**_Gotham City_ **

They were rabid with a mad desire to overtake the speeding vehicle, Tantalus most of all. He lets out a vicious sounding scream while his outstretched arm slams down on a steel crane atop a building.

The steel behemoth crashes down upon the mass of writhing bodies below it, crushing and killing many of them, though only those who stop to feast upon the remains even notice. Tantalus was beyond caring about the state of his ever shrinking army. What mattered was Diana, and he would have her no matter what.

Bruce meanwhile clicked on his communications once more, casting a glance at the unconscious woman beside him. “Luthor, this is Batman. Tantalus is following down East 32nd. And you and the rest ready?”

The answer comes back instantly. “Affirmative”.

“Good. Let’s end this”.

With those words Bruce sets the batmobile’s nitro boosters on to avoid the swooping down hand of Tantalus, who had tried to grab the vehicle unsuccessfully. He lets out a roar of pain as his fingers are singed by the flames that lick from the boosters, though his advance continues on.

“Batwoman, are you ready?”

“You know, I gotta ask, why is it always me doing the flying and you the driving? We can switch it up sometimes you know?”

He smiles despite the situation he found himself in, though he reels it in. Now was not the time for teasing. “Focus Batwoman. Are you ready?”

“It’s all ready Batman”.

“Good. We’re only going to have one shot at this so we need to make it work”.

“It will” she reassures him. “Let’s torch this bastard”.

Bruce sees the exit that he was to take off of this main road, leading into the open area of Gotham’s downtown district. His eyes narrow and Diana groans, jarred back and forth by the random twists and turns of the vehicle. Bruce doesn’t care. He doubted anyone would care about the level of pain the woman was experiencing. Still she’d most likely need medical treatment for her eye.

If they survived.

He slams the batmobile to the fastest possible speed, maxing out at one hundred and eighty miles an hour. Tantalus was still on him though, the power and speed he’d gained through eating so many souls had only hastened his speed.

He was horror incarnate, with gore dripping down his massive teeth which seemed as if they fit more on a shark than on a human, though the man was most certainly something more than human.

Bruce looks ahead and sees the abandoned and empty square lit up by flashing billboards advertising random assortments of products. He twists the batmobile so it skids off of the asphalt and forces Tantalus to crash into an abandoned bus. He had to time this right, and his eyes now turned towards the mass of Amazons following behind their king.

He grimaced, hoping that they would get most of them on this first shot, but knowing that he shouldn’t count on it. ‘Ares and the others will still have a lot to clean up after’.

He only lets the car stop for a moment, giving Tantalus just enough time to regain his momentum and turn his eyes back to the black car. Bruce revs his engine and spins the wheels before taking off, aiming down one of the few side roads still left open. Luthor had done excellent work in barricading all the others, and it would leave them bottlenecked at the very least. 

The Amazons poured in, and if the whole army wasn’t inside of the confines of the square, a good chunk of it was. That was enough for Bruce, and he rockets into the side road, watching as Tantalus makes to follow him. In his current form he was much too big to fit through the gap between the two large skyscrapers, but even if he shrunk down he wouldn’t have been able to continue his chase.

As soon as the batmobile passes, two soldiers dip out from the alleyway holding rocket propelled grenade launchers in their hands. “URRRAAAHHH!”

With the quintessential russian battle cry, they let lose, and the projectiles sail through the air towards the main cannibal, exploding right in his chest and upper arm respectively. He roars in pain and steps back with harsh footfalls that slam into the concrete, leaving their mark. His arm was dangling by no more than a string of tendon it seemed, and his chest bore a massive hole into which the inner workings of his chest are exposed in a grotesque manner.

Bruce steps out of the batmobile to see their combined work, and knows that the signal Luthor had been waiting for was now out. The Amazons were left in disarray and confusion as they trailed behind their king, unsure of what to do but recoiling at the horrendous wound he’d suffered. 

They turn their ire on the soldiers and Batman who still stood in the center of the road. They were about to charge when a few more soldiers come out of the adjacent buildings, quickly setting up another barricade that blocked this route off to them.

They snarled and hissed as they threw themselves at the walls, trying to get to the men and women behind though they were too hampered by accurate small arms fire to do anything more than add their own bodies to the wall.

Behind them, the forces of Ares had formed a shield wall, blocking off the path that they took into the square and cutting them off from any retreat. The Amazons, having lost all sense of military order, only now realize that something was wrong. 

They try to push back through the line of their former sisters, but under Ares’ command they refuse to give way. In fact, they are shoved backwards and many of them fall as swords rise and fall upon them.

Ares steps forward himself and slams his sword down across an enemy’s head, splitting her down the middle to her chest. ‘Luthor…..hurry up’ he thinks eagerly, knowing that they wouldn’t long be able to hold the monsters at bay.

  
Even now the contest was starting to fold inward, and they wouldn’t be able to hold if the entire cannibal army turned back on them. Batman meanwhile was on it, clicking on the comm link and snapping into Luthor.

“Luthor, it’s now or never”.

“Then it’s now”.

The bald man looked idly at the detonator he held in his hand, watching with rapt attention as the other heroes honed in on him, waiting for the momentous second where he’d press down on that button. It comes instantly, and for a second after watching the bald man’s finger move down on the button, nothing happens.

A huge explosion rocks the city, though it was clear that it was from below with how muffled it sounded. Everyone stops and stands in place, watching as the floor upon which the army was standing, collapses, the entire street falling in.

The Amazons and Tantalus are even more confused as they fall into the pit, tumbling over one another as the shelters meant to protect Gotham city’s citizens from the artillery of the League serve as a large confinement for them.

It was clear that many were hurt, but none of them were fully out of the battle yet. Even now Tantalus’ massive hand could be seen creeping over the side, trying to pull himself up to continue the battle. The others had no such luck and were instead fighting over each other to claw their way up.

Eyes were gouged out and skin was ripped off in the mad dash to reach the top of the pit. Batman noticed this first, and the worry he had multiplied as the Amazons couldn’t be allowed to leave the pit. “Batwoman we’re…”.

“I see it sweetie. Now let mama focus”.

The batwing swoops in between the buildings quicker than he would’ve liked, the wing tips almost hitting against the glass. She just makes it though, and when it opens up into the square she swoops the vehicle downwards over the pit.

The bomb bay door opens and Bruce watches as the two makeshift oil drums fall out, flailing through the air on the downward trajectory towards the mass of Amazons. “Luthor, get your men ready!”

As soon as Bruce was finished speaking, a massive explosion rocks the area for a second time as the napalm bombs explode, coating the warrior women in the sticky flaming gelatin that causes them to howl out in pain. 

They desperately claw and scratch at each other and themselves, trying to get the burning fuel off of them but such actions only cause it to spread and cause more pain. Tantalus screams as his already wounded body is engulfed in the liquid, and he falls to his knees before getting up once more, resolved to get out of the pit and kill some of his enemies before falling, though part of him refused to believe he’d failed.    
  
Just as his hand comes up over the side again, a group of soldiers rush forward and begin firing their weapons into his hand, working on preventing such an escape. The bullets rip and tear through his massive fingers, sending bits of flaming flesh back into the pit and scattering about the remaining corners of the concrete. 

More soldiers join in as they try to contain the few Amazons who managed to escape, using the massive pile of bodies that were quickly piling up to their advantage. On fire and screaming, they were thrown back into the pit by the impact of the rounds into their bodies.

Deadshot was amongst them, and he was the deciding factor in making sure every shot counted in such a traumatic and nerve wracking situation.    
  
Bruce looks up to see the batwing moving rapidly out of the city, undoubtedly back to Wayne Manor. “You did it Batwoman. Good work”.

“Thanks Batman. See you later”.

As soon as he hangs up from his call from Harley, he hears a moan from the car, and watches as Wonder Woman seems to be waking up. Her body was wounded and frail of course, but she still had a slight reserve of strength to draw from. She draws herself out of the car and instantly falls over the side, slamming into the pavement.

The Russians drop their RPGs and draw their AK47s which had been slung about their back, advancing on the woman as they make ready to kill her. “Hold your fire!”

Bruce stops them with an outstretched hand, hoping to communicate his desires just in case the fact of him not speaking Russian prohibited him from stopping them.

They understood though, and they lower their weapons, maintaining an ever vigilant guard over the woman. The dark haired former princess looks up, barely able to support her frame on her weak, grizzled hands as she tries to get a look at what’s happening.

The first sight she sees is Tantalus, having finally made his way over the edge of the pit, though he was engulfed in flame. Her eyes widen in horror and fear. “No!”

The giant was being stopped only by rapidly delivered small arms fire which seemed to impact harmlessly into his burning flesh. Diana makes to get up, wanting to assist her lover who was only here now due to her being captured.

She gets a few steps before falling, right in front of Bruce who manages to keep her restrained by grasping her arm. He pulls her to her feet, ensuring that she wouldn’t be able to bite him while also giving her a clear view of the destruction of her army.

Tantalus makes to step forward, worrying the soldiers who felt they could no longer contain him. They backed up, still unloading their clips into the beast though they weren’t sure of if it was working. Diana lets loose a little toothy smile, turning to mock her captor with it.

“You failed” she begins nervously. “You failed! Tantalus is strong! Stronger than anyone! Stronger than…!”

Her words are cut off as an equally massive figure to the blazing man eater, steps onto the scene, her fist raised in anger. Giganta was no slouch when it came to throwing a punch, and the armless man was unable to feign her off as her fist impacts against his face, crunching in his jaw and sending many of his teeth scattering to the ground. 

The leather gloves she wore gave her nominal protection from the flames, though she also had back up. Hawkman soars through the air, carrying Ice who uses her powers to freeze the king’s right leg, halting the fire but encasing it and causing him to stand still. Giganta was instantly on it, and she pulls her leg up to then kick it out against the frozen appendage. 

“NO!!!”

Diana was sobbing now, reaching out towards the man who’d whispered such sweet promises to her as he was inevitably going to die. Tantalus seems to hear her cry out, before he can no longer maintain his balance, and slowly, he reaches her hand out to her. 

It was a moment that lasts no more than a second as his body soon disappears underneath the concrete, but it was one that happened nonetheless. Diana keeps reaching out for her lost lover, of whom she’d been the bait that led him and her sisters to their demise.

Strangely, Bruce found himself oddly pitying the woman. 

That feeling vanishes as soon as he thinks about all the lives she’d lost. The people she’d helped kill. Pity was something he could ill afford, especially when so little of it was wasted by the woman in question upon the others.

Soon the cheers of the soldiers and heroes, defenders of Gotham City all, break out and steal away Bruce’s thoughts. Giganta had shrunk back to her normal size and was being busily embraced by her husband. 

  
Deadshot was ensuring that any of the few remaining Amazons stayed down in the mass grave that had been made for them without their knowledge. 

It was a comparatively quiet ending to what had been an undoubtedly loud battle, but now? Gotham was safe. It had toppled all that stood to oppress and oppose it and now? They were free.

Free, but not without loses.

He looks down at the still crying woman and yanks her up, though this time he couldn’t help but do it a slowly and much more gently. He brings her back to the batmobile, having to work at constantly pulling her back from the scene of carnage behind him.

“Batman? This is Luthor. It appears that we’ve been victorious”.

Bruce stops to move Diana back into the car, handcuffing her power inhibitors to the door and precluding any possible escape attempts. “Hmm”.

“We wouldn’t have been able to do this without you…”.

The vigilante looks at the group of soldiers nearest to him and mulls over Luthor’s words as he gets back into the batmobile, wanting to return the wounded woman to GCPD where hopefully they would find a way to patch her wounds and feed her properly without human flesh.

“We did this together Luthor. All of us”.

  
Diana seems to hear this and she tilts her head up to glare balefully at the caped crusader. “You did nothing Batman!” she seethes. “You tricked a great man and won your victory through cowardice. You’ll die for this! I’ll kill you one day!”.

“I assume she isn’t happy?”

Bruce turns the key in the ignition and starts the car, fixing his eyes on the road ahead as the vehicle begins to move slowly through the alley. “No. She isn’t”.

“Good”.

“We didn’t do this alone Luthor” Batman says. “Lots of people were involved”.

“And they’ll be honored yes. When this is all over? Gotham is going to have a lot more heroes to keep in mind though...I’m hoping that this wasn’t just a one time thing”.

Bruce could hear the unspoken question in the man’s voice, and he was too tired to play guessing games. He turns the corner of the side street and exits onto an adjoining freeway. “Whatever it is you want to say, just say it”.

“Batman...the world isn’t safe. Not yet. Hell, we both know it’ll never be, but what we all did here? In Gotham? It proves that it can be made safe” Luthor says passionately. “That the right group of people with the right powers, working for the actual common good without dictating can make the world a better place. I want to make the Justice Society a international organization dedicated to doing what we did in Gotham, wherever it may be needed”.

“A reformed Justice League?” Bruce asks skeptically.

“No. Something better than they ever could’ve dreamed” Lex says. “I’m willing to bankroll the whole thing, though I’m guessing you have friends that could help out quite a lot as well”. Lex’s tone of voice was lilting and was obviously hinting at the fact that he knew Bruce Wayne and the Batman were one and the same.

“Perhaps”.

“Is that a yes…”.

“It’s a maybe” he says, looking towards the fuming Diana and worrying over the rage in her eyes. He hated himself for the feeling, but he felt that if she didn’t survive? The world wouldn’t exactly be worse off.

Batman softens his tone, not wanting to be too blunt with the man.

“I have to talk about it with the others. I’m sure that at the very least the Justice Society would be able to count on our support” he consoles. “Good. Very good. As for now...rest. You deserve it”.

Rest.

That he knew he could never do.

  
Even if his body and soul cried out for it. He’d never be able to “rest” in the classic sense of kicking it back and not worrying. Still, he did have a family vacation to plan. The last thing he wanted to do right now was break a promise to Harleen.

**_GCPD Lockup_ **

“You have NO authority to do this!” Montoya says uselessly, flailing along behind the woman as she moves with ease through the cell block. “Actually commissioner, we’re the government. We have complete authority to do this” the large black woman says, able to hold the police commissioner and her men back through the implied threat of force that her armed guards so eagerly communicated.

“What fucking government puta?” the woman seethes. “You all tucked tail and ran when this guy first stepped on the scene. Only government I recognize right now is the one run by President Harvey Dent”.

The woman lets out a smile though it was hard for the other woman to see it, constantly trying to catch up to her. Harvey Bullock steps forward and places his hand on the woman’s shoulder to stop her. “Ey, the commish is trying...OOOFF!”

Before the large man knew it he was being slammed back against the metal bars of an empty cell by a snarling agent in a black suit. “Touch her and you die!”

“Let him go!” Montoya says, drawing her sidearm and pointing it at the back of the head of the agent. As soon as she does, a pistol is pointed at her, which precedes all of the officers present drawing their weapons on the agents and vice versa.

It was a classic mexican standoff, and the domineering woman was definitely not amused.    
  
“We don’t have time for this” she says with a huff, turning to Montoya and reaching up to lower her guards pistol. She then reaches into her blouse and retracts a piece of paper from one of her inner pockets. She hands it over to Montoya who takes it suspiciously and looks it over.

  
What instantly pops out at her is the seal of the president of the United States. 

Opening the letter, she begins to go over it, and her eyes widen in fear at what this all meant. “No...no...no way. Not after all that mierda! No!”.

“Come on now Montoya” the woman scolds. “You knew this whole, “Republic of Gotham” thing was never going to last and it hasn’t. Without Superman to hold it up, the Justice League Regime has collapsed and now? The USA is back in control”.

“After giving it all up to him like fucking cowards” Bullock says, having been released from the guard who was previously strangling him. “Be that as it may detective Bullock, your autonomy is over. Welcome back. Your country thanks you for your service and...whatever”.

The woman throws her hand over her shoulder and begins to move forward again, this time stopping in front of Superman’s cell, the man himself having heard and witnessed the scuffle.

He was intrigued. 

  
“Superman, a.k.a Clark Kent, or Kal El?”

“Like you need to ask” he glares. “You’re right. We don’t. We already know you. Want to know what else we know?” she asks suggestively. 

“What?”

“We know that you don’t want to sit in a cell for the rest of your life. Do you?”

His answer was quick and forthcoming, and he stands up in the cell, moving off of his cot. “No” he says while leaning against the bars. “Good. Then you can get out. Few rules. You work for me. You do exactly what I tell you and maybe, maybe” she stresses that one word. “You can get out of this alive and eventually, a free man. We have a deal?”

“Do I really have a choice?”

“You do” she enunciates, bringing one of her men forward with a wave of her hand. He brings with him, a briefcase that he slowly lays out upon the floor, revealing a syringe that was tucked neatly inside. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Relax Montoya” the black woman says. “If anything, I’m making sure he can’t hurt anybody. Well, at least not anybody that we don’t want hurt yet”. She turns back to Superman and stares at him intently, a stoic expression upon her face. “Stick your arm out through the bars”.

  
“Why?”

“Already not following one of my rules” she warns with a voice that somehow convinces the inhibited man of steel to do exactly as she says. He pushes his arm through the bar, and turns it so that his elbow was facing downward. The man holding the syringe quickly reaches out and grasps his appendage, holding him tight before pressing the needle into a vein. 

Most expected the steel to bend against his skin, him being invulnerable as such but luckily due to the effects of the red sun generators the needle moves easily into his vein, injecting the contents of the syringe into his bloodstream.

  
“What did you just give him?”

“It’s top secret but just to let you be a little bit more comfortable with releasing him to my care? It’ll neutralize him for now. He won’t be able to do anything we don’t want him to. Now, open the cell”.

Renee didn’t want to move, and she most certainly didn’t want to hand over the world’s preeminent tyrant that they had only just defeated. ‘Dammit...I wish Batman was here’.

“Don’t do it commish”.

  
“We don’t have a choice Harvey” she snaps back, regretting it instantly before looking down at the note again. Slowly she reaches into her pocket where the key for the cellblock was, and she moves towards the locking mechanism, inserting the object and turning it.

  
With a loud clank, the cell door opens and Superman wastes no time in stepping out into the hallway. He had a wide smile on his face that he turned to mockingly use upon Montoya. “Didn’t keep me long did you?”

“You’re making a mistake!”

They turn to see the Flash and Shayera pressed against their own cell bars, staring in horror as the man who’d caused so much misery and pain was released. “He’s going to kill again. Trust me. He’s a madman. He won’t stop”.

“Whoever you are, stop. Just stop and think about what you’re doing!” Shayera pleads.

“I am thinking about what I’m doing” the woman says. “And I know it’s for the betterment of all that he’s used...for our goals”. She turns back to the man and regards him expressionlessly, hating how he seemed so smug about being released. “Get him out of here, and then get him prepped”.

“Don’t these come off?” the man of steel asks, raising his hands to showcase the power inhibitor cuffs that still remained upon his wrists.

“Those stay on”.

His face falls at her proclamation, as it was clear he expected to be freed from them due to the injection he’d just been given. “In order for those to come off? Some...fail safes have to be put in place first” she says with a smile, which instantly drops upon her next statement.

“Now get moving”.

The two guards assigned to him nonverbally work on pushing the man forward, not caring at all that he was once the most powerful man in the world. He passed the Gotham police commissioner with a snide and superior grin on his face, and she knew there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

“Chin up commissioner”.

The woman was now standing in front of her, appearing much more conciliatory as she had apparently now gotten what she wanted. “You’ll always be the officer who brought in Superman. Be proud of that”.

“It wasn’t me. It was Batman and the rest of the Justice Society” she spits back.

“Ahh yes, the so called Justice Society. I wonder how long it’ll be before they turn out the exact same way as the Justice League did”.

“They wont”.

Montoya detected the faint echo of worry in her voice, and she hated herself for it. Doubting the men and women who’d saved Gotham City. But, when the League first appeared?   
  


They told everybody they were saviors too.

The woman who’d so easily managed to overrule the commissioner begins to exit the cell block with the rest of her men, sharing angry glances with the officers of the GCPD. “Wait…”.

She yields and turns to face Montoya one more time.

“When the people of Gotham want to know why Superman was taken, and who took him, what do we tell them? They’re owed that much”.

Something about the way her eyes seemed to bore into the inner workings of her soul. It was very rare, especially in her line of work, to feel that she was facing down an equal. ‘Especially since you’ve just so easily outmaneuvered her’ she reminds herself, trying to make herself believe that Renee Montoya was no threat.

Still, it was a fair request.

“Tell them that he’s going to be put to use off world” she explains. “There are more threats to Earth than just from common crooks and cat burglars. We need real muscle out there to keep things relative workable here. Ohh, and the name’s Waller. Amanda Waller”.

With that she turns and exits up the stairs, the last of her men following behind her rapidly. It was clear that they wanted to avoid any confrontation with the Batman, who was on his way here now with an incapacitated Wonder Woman. 

Many questions were left about the woman.

  
Who she worked for, how she got to work for them, what she really meant by taking Superman to fight battles off world and how she even got into the city with all of Luthor’s high tech defenses?

She’d bring this up with Batman of course, and inevitably he’d come up with a strategy to prevent anything like this from happening again, or so she hoped. For now? They needed to relax, take a deep breath and celebrate their victory in the second battle of Gotham.

For now.

**_Amazonian Camp, Wayne Manor_ **

“Amazons!”

At the voice Adriane heard, even in her dead sleep, she woke, desperate for news. She’d only intended to sleep for an hour or two at most, but when she’d awoken? It felt like days had passed.    
  
“Ares?” she calls out weakly, still exhausted as undoubtedly her sisters all were as well, from their ordeal. She moves to her feet and stumbles out of the tent, practically bumping into the man in question. He takes her in his arms and holds her tightly to him, kissing her forehead lovingly before swinging her about.

“We won! It’s over. All of it! It’s over!”

“Ares! Put me down! Put me down! What do you mean?!”

He does as prompted and places the woman back down on her feet, trying to collect himself as he and the other Amazons move back into the camp, barely able to remove their armor before collapsing into their tents upon their bedrolls.

“We won Adriane…”.

“Without me?”

“No, with you” he says. “Aren’t Amazons told that the victories of their sisters are their own victories as well?”

She sighs at having to remember that lesson, some of her jealousy at not having been there for the final battle melting away. It embarrassed her that she hadn’t remembered that, yet Ares had. He reaches up to caress her cheek, a smile on his face. “It’s over. Tantalus is dead and your corrupted sisters are freed”.

She leans into his touch, having come to like it and even crave it. It was a strange feeling. To want and need a man. 

“Yes my son...indeed it is”.

The man turns at the familiar voice, and Adriane watches as anger makes its way into his expression. “Mother” he says evenly, not wishing to invoke her wrath regardless of his distaste for her. He was tired of fighting, tired of it all. She smiles at him, though it was obviously an uneasy and nervous one.    
  
“I...I have never been good at saying these things…”.

“Then don’t”.

A look crosses her face that convinces the woman standing beside her that the goddess of motherhood was about to cut and run, but she wasn’t about to allow that. Elise shakes her head and elbows the woman in the side. ‘If you’re gonna drop all this queen stuff on me then damn well bet you’re going to be talking to your son toots’.

Hera scowls at the woman before humbling herself and realizing that the as of yet unannounced queen of the Amazons, and the princess who stands beside her, gripping her hand, was right. She looks away and gathers her courage, knowing that this would not be an easy trail to walk. 

“My son…”.

“I’m not going back to Tartarus”.

His quick proclamation threw her off, and she was rapidly searching for verbal footing to regain momentum in the conversation. “I know..I’m not here to bring you there..”.

“I did the right thing, and I refuse to be penalized for Olympus for it…”.

“You aren’t in trouble Ares…”.

“I will not be lectured to by you either mother. I am not the sum of your hatred of me…”.

“ARES!” Adriane shouts, cutting him off as she follows it up by laying her head upon his chest openly, no longer caring for the idea that she had to hide her feelings. “Listen to your mother so you may remove your armor and lay down with me. I am very tired, and undoubtedly so are you”.

Hera looks towards the general and smiles, quirking an eyebrow at that. ‘Well, thank you general’ she chuckles to herself mentally before returning her gaze to her son and being surprised by the expression he wore on his face. He looked down at the woman in his arms and brushed his fingers through her hair lovingly, clearly heeding her words.

‘She has cowed the god of war so completely?’ she thinks, a little jealousy seeping into her heart at how she was unable to prevent Zeus from roaming through such a hold upon his heart. She pushes these thoughts away though. She had to speak to Ares. Truly speak to him.

“My son...I am so proud of you” she says loudly, gaining his attention as well as many of the Amazons who had gathered around to hear their patron goddesses’ words. “As for my hatred of you...I will admit that I was never the mother I should’ve been for you”.

  
At this she steps forward and places her hand upon his shoulder. He doesn’t shrug it off, and instead continues to look into her eyes, trying to detect if she was telling the truth. “I was wrong” she whispers. “I mistreated you because of what the fates made you to be. What they forced upon you. I thought that that justified my dislike and pushing you away, but the fates have a habit of giving us self fulfilling prophecies” she explains. “I made you what you were for a long time, and I do not blame you..I blame myself”.

The two go silent, and Ares, despite the anger burning inside of him, feels it start to cool. He reignites it of his own will practically, but it does not stay burning for long. Gods were not like mortals. They could sense the maturity and sincerity of ones heart, empathize with their pain on a much more physical level.

He felt the deep pools of his mother’s sadness.

Hera looks up and smiles through her teary gaze at her soon. “You were such an adorable baby Ares” she goes on. “You used to constantly rock back and forth and put your feet in your mouth. So much so that Zeus used to say that you’d be the god of stinky feet” she laughs. “He always teased you with that”.

She stops for a moment and looks off again before returning her gaze to the former god of war. “I can not undo time. What I can do, is promise to love you, as a mother should. Regardless of if you wish for it or not. I will pester you. I will annoy you. I will constantly be looking in on you. You need not forgive me, as I shall never forgive myself. Me, the goddess of motherhood, failing her own son...that ends. The fates shall not win here my son. You will be happy”.

  
With that she steps forward and places a kiss on the mentally unwilling, but physically inert god. She stays for a moment and brushes her fingers through his dark locks. “I am so proud of the man you’ve become” she intones before her eyes settle on Adriane.

“And you…”.

The general gulped at the look of promised fury in the woman’s eyes, knowing that this was certainly not a normal interaction a woman would have, meeting her mother in law, for the majority of the women of man’s world.

“You shall take care of my son Amazon. That is my task set before you. Do not...fail me”.

Adriane numbly nods, always being cowed when in the presence of her patroness. She feels Ares squeeze her tighter into his side, and she’s comforted by his steady hand. “We shall take care of each other”. She warms at his words, unable to prevent her smile from creeping out along her face while nuzzling deeper against him. 

“Good...very good”.

  
Hera turns her head to the rest of the Amazons and ushers them forward, wanting them to hear what she had to say. They followed her orders quickly enough, and soon they formed a semi circle about the goddess. Even Ares, still angry with his mother but soothed partially by her softness, pays attention.

  
“Amazons, it is by the very nature of your sisterhood, that you shall need a queen to reign over you” she explains. “Themyscira has fallen, and it shall never be your home again”.

Murmurs of shock and surprise echo out through the ranks of women, and Hera raises her hand to silence them. “You can never return to the past. Instead, think of what the future must hold!” Her booming voice captivated her audience, and they hung on every world. “At the time that I assisted in sequestering you away, I thought that you needed to be away from the world for a time, thinking you’d all eventually return and become ideals for all to follow. I was wrong”.

She begins to usher Elise and Martha forward, the woman and girl following her nonverbal command.    
  
“Amazons..the world needs mothers. And wives. And friends like you” she goes on. “To reflect your new charter, I have chosen a new queen for you. One whom can help you best. Hippolyta was a brave woman, a warrior. She shall forever be missed. A warrior is not what you need now. You need Elise to guide you...for she in herself is an ideal. A woman who did not break as I allowed us all to break”.

All was silence, and it was obvious that many of the Amazons didn’t know what she was talking about. “As for Diana, the failure, I cast her out of this sisterhood. Let her name be naught but spittle from thy lips when it is spoken. You still need hope though, someone to inspire and in turn be inspired by, so to you I present your new princess, Martha Elise Wayne, hope of the Amazons”.

The little girl blushes and seems to hide in her grandmother’s side, and the woman makes to comfort her. Her guards move up as well, flanking the two on either side. When her proclamation is met with silence, Hera knows that she has to nip this bout of uncertainty in the bud. 

‘Throw them into the world and force them to swim’.

“Well Amazons? Are you or are you not going to bow before your new queen and princess?”

This seems to shock the women into action, and slowly they move to their knees before the new royals, their leaders, their future. Martha seems to be even more confused by this and looks up at her grandmother. “Nana…” she whispers.

“Yes sweetie?”

Elise herself was nervous, unable to comprehend what was going on and trying to keep up. “Does this mean we’re gods?”

“No sweetie, no” she says before wondering to herself if Martha wanted to be a goddess, and what that would mean. ‘Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely’. 

  
“Why sweet pea? Did you want to be?”

Martha shakes her head no vigorously, her eyes wide and fearful. “No” she says back. “I just wanna be Martha Wayne”. Elise couldn’t help but smile at that sentiment, indeed able to understand it fully. “Well, you’re still Martha Wayne sweetie”.

Suddenly, she knew exactly the right thing to say to the girl. “What do you think Barbara would think? One day, you’re going to be a great hero, like mommy and daddy and Jason and Uncle Vic and Aunt Dinah…..like Barbara”.

She’d come to realize that one couldn’t run from responsibilities, nor could you just let someone else take care of it when you saw injustice in the world. It was up to you. She couldn’t run, and neither could Martha. 

“Would...would she be proud?”

“Sweetie, she’d be the proudest big sister ever” Elise says, buoying the girl’s spirits. “She’d hold you on her shoulders and show you off and smile. You know it”.

“I wish she was here…”.

Elise sighs and tries to fight those feelings that well up within her every time. “She is sweetie...she is”. Looking out over the army, small as it was, that she now commanded, she knew that she had to look to the horizons now. Still, one childish thought does enter her mind. 

‘Alfred baby...you’re sleeping with a very powerful woman now’.

**_Later That Night, Wayne Manor_ **

He sat in his chair, looking up at the picture of his mom and dad. His eyes half lidded, he brings his glass back to his mouth, enjoying the seltzer that seemed to help calm him by virtue of its bubbly tumultuousness.

The fire roared before him, and he tried to shake out the losses from his mind.

His daughter, in a way his son too. Jason would never look at life the same way. He couldn’t, and he knew he’d never forgive him for stripping the title he’d earned a thousand times over from him. He looks down at the flames and smiles sadly, though soon he feels a kiss upon his neck as Harleen, ever quiet though he’d heard her enter, sneaks into the room. 

“Hi Bruce..”.

He reaches up and pats her hand, leaning back into the soft embrace of the chair. He closes his eyes for a moment before feeling two weights quickly settle on his lap. His daughters had cuddled into him, and he most certainly hadn’t heard them enter. “My princesses” he says, kissing both of their foreheads in tandem.

Jason was the next to enter though he says nothing and instead moves to the fireplace, gazing into the flames with an intensity Bruce only saw in him rarely. “Hello Jason”.

“Hey dad”.

The response was quiet and unobtrusive, but it was enough to tell him that while their relationship had changed, it hadn’t been destroyed. 

“Ahh, Master and Miss Wayne. Tea?”

Alfred, ever faithful and ever strong, moves into the room alongside Elise who wore a smile upon her face, though her eyes relayed the fact of her having some news well enough to the perceptive man. “Yes, thank you Alfred”.

Harleen moved her hand up to run over his shoulders and hair, neither being afraid of open displays of affection. Another group enters the room, and as usual, the Sage family was loud. “Babydoll, that’s insane”.

“Dad there isn’t such a thing as spy pigeons” little Vic says.

“Is too!” Kathleen, from her perch in her father’s arms echoes out in defense of her dad.

Bruce and Charlie remain silent while Dinah just rolls her eyes and smiles at how her daughter was a conspiracy theorist just like her father. The sage family sits down on one of the sofas that lined the room. 

They weren’t the last to come in.

A shy hand turns the corner and knocks on the frame, and Harleen turns to instantly recognize what the green hued skin meant. “Special delivery”.

“Who can that be? And whose the delivery for?” Dinah asks jokingly crossing her arms under her chest and smiling. A baby appears around the corner being held by his father, though only Harvey’s arms were visible. The look of confusion on poor Harvey juniors face was hilarious. “Oop...that’s for me!”   
  
Dinah rushes up and grasps the baby in her arms, taking him from his father and twirling her godson about. Harvey’s confusion is gone, and now he just giggles in the blonde’s arms. “My godson! How are you? And you still have that new baby smell” she teases, blowing a raspberry on his cheek.

Little Harleen enters herself and moves over to the chair where her aunt and uncle were, being hugged by her namesake and her hair rubbed by her uncle. Harvey and Pamela entered next, Alfred instantly falling on the two to take their coats.

“Mr. President…”.

“Al…” the man says in a long suffering way. “It’s back to Mayor now so please, don’t treat me like a VIP”.

“I don’t know Harvey” Pamela says. “You’re still MY president”.

Bruce smiles at the good natured bickering that envelops the entire room, each little part of his family working together seamlessly to make things work with what they had. Looking around? They had a lot. More than a lot.

“You okay puddin’?”

He takes her hand and kisses it. “We will be. We will be Harley”.

“Nana should we invite the Amazons in?”

“What?” the woman asks nervously, seeing herself put in the limelight. She hadn’t told anyone in the manor about the goings on outside of it. Not yet. ‘Please don’t let me get yelled at’. 

“Why sweetie? They’re okay out there”.

Martha turns her head and looks at her with a confused expression. “But if you’re their queen you’ve gotta take care of them!”.

“Mama….” Harleen says accusingly, turning her head on Elise. Something had happened, and she knew that it now involved her little girl who was thick as thieves with her grandmother. “What my gorgeous and smart daughter?”

“Nana, as the princess and...champion..” Martha says, working out which word to use. “Of the Amazons, I think we should let them in the Manor!”.

Bruce was now very intrigued and he too turns on Elise with squinted eyes. “Elise?”

“Ohh it’s a harmless little thing…”.

“Mama…”.

“It’s really nothing!”

“What happened now?”

“Ohh my word Elise what now?”

She was boxed in by the den of curious and smirking faces, though some were angry. ‘Dammit Elise...you always get yourself into these messes!’ 

  
She wasn’t sure how she was going to explain it all. Hell, she didn’t know how too explain it all. But, her hand was being forced, and now? She’d have to take the heat. ‘Easy Elise. Be a queen...be a queen..”.

With a deep breath she begins. “Bruce, Harleen...Martha is...well….she’s going to be the future Wonder Woman”.

Dead silence.

And then all hell broke loose. 

Just as she expected.

‘At least the band aid's off’ she grimaces, preparing herself to face the combined might of the Wayne, Sage and Dent family’s fury. 

Even a queen had her limits.


	35. Chapter 35

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So just a massive shout out to Dance of Pales for allowing me to use the name Konn'r in this chapter. That was their idea completely so round of applause to them! Also, the idea for Cyborg's new identity as Grid came from them so another round of applause.
> 
> Now this chapter is rough towards the end. I myself was adopted, and I deal a lot with some of the fallout from that. I didn't have a bad life, but I've often felt like something was missing or that I didn't belong. It's been a source of great sadness for me, so I guess when I wrote K's response, it was a bit of wish fulfillment on my part. I don't know if that makes it good, or bad or, well...I don't know. 
> 
> We are ONE chapter away from completion on this segment which means we have ONE more story to go until the end of this series. I thank you all humbly for staying with me and enjoying this story. I hope I have grown as a writer since I started, and I hope I've gained some of you who will want to read what comes after this which will be my version of Gotham By Gaslight. Enjoy!

**_Gotham City Executive Mansion, Two Months Later_ **

Harvey nodded and looked deeply into the camera, collecting himself for what was going to be the hardest statement he ever had to make. “Gotham City” he begins. “We’ve been through a lot. Lost a lot. I’m not sure if the scars we have from what we’ve experienced will ever fully heal. Maybe they shouldn’t. Maybe we should always have them...to remind ourselves of what we survived, and of how collectively strong we are”.

He fixes his tie which has gone askew and then looks back up, wanting to focus on the issue at hand. “It has been my honor to serve as president of this Republic. It seems as if...well…” he stops to chuckle. “I’m the only openly two faced politician to get elected to the highest office in the land”.

He hoped that joke would go over well. He knew Pamela would frown at it but if it got a few laughs, that was okay with him.

“But now, it is time for that to come to an end” he says gravely. “We must move forward and rejoin the United States, something many of you have expressed grave concern over. I must be clear, we cannot sustain ourselves as an independent city state any longer. We simply don’t have the capacity to keep going indefinitely. However, in my negotiations with the government, I have extracted a few key concessions”.

He pulls up the paper he’d written them down upon, not wanting to miss a single important point.

“We will not be admitted back into any state. We will remain an mostly autonomous district akin to Washington D.C. We have the right to negotiate international trade agreements insofar as Gotham trade is concerned directly with another nation’s trade. All the bylaws and procedures of such a move will be worked out by lower level policy makers, people on the ground who are much smarter than me” he jokes.   
  
“Gotham City will maintain a small standing militia, which will always be under the command of a general, separate from the governing branch of this city, that is elected into office for no less than a term of eight years, of which they can only serve one term”.

He puts the paper down, knowing the rest by heart as these had been the bread and butter reasons for him appealing directly to Washington D.C. and the reformed government contained therein. “The United States government has also agreed to cover the damages done to this city. A Gotham Taxpayer will not have to pay a single cent towards it. That’s another thing, federal taxes for those living in Gotham have been cut by one third, with the knowledge and trust that Gotham City will assist in releasing funds to the Mother Country in which we reside”.

“Lastly...the federal government has agreed to erect a statue to all those fallen in service of our city. Right at this moment, a statue is standing in the rebuilt times square to honor one of the greatest heroes this city has ever known, Amy Allen, a.k.a Bombshell, who gave her life to prevent Superman’s assault upon this city”.

His mind flashes back to the unveiling ceremony, where he stood beside members of the Justice Society and watched as the sheet covering the girl’s stone visage fluttered away in the wind. Garfield cried, though he tried to hide it. His friends were all there for him, especially Raina who held him tightly and let a tear loose of her own at how deeply Garfield was hurt by his girlfriend’s death. Harvey had spoken a few words though he didn’t remember them. All he could remember was the teary faces of the heroes before him.

“On the single part of the Gotham Defensive Line that is still standing, the statues of Colonel Anatoli Knyazev and Count Vertigo stand along with the rest of their troops. An eternal flame will burn in front of the flag of the Soviet Union, which will fly alongside the flag of our city”.

“There are too many monuments to list them all. What I can say is that those lost will be honored and remembered. As for me, I step down as President of the Republic of Gotham” he says while stopping to mull over that fact. “I’m probably the first president to oversee the end of the nation he led and still have an approval rating of seventy three percent” he jests. 

“I will remain your mayor for the rest of my term however, and at this point in time, I’m planning on seeking reelection. I hope I earn your vote, and I hope that we, as a city, can continue to move forward together. God bless you all”.

The camera cuts and Harvey sighs, leaning back in the chair behind his desk as the camera crew works on undoing all of their equipment and getting it ready to be reboxed and stored. Before he opens his eyes, a weight seems to land in his lap out of nowhere and when he opens his eyes he sees his daughter, Harleen. “Hey kiddo”.

“You’re not gonna be president anymore daddy?”

“Not of Gotham no sweetie”.

“Aww…”.

He smirks and kisses her cheek. “Why? You want me to be president?”

“Uhhm”.

“Why?”

“Because if you are then I can be president one day too”.

“Sweetie being president isn’t dynastic” Pamela says while moving up to the side of the man’s chair, baby Harvey swaddled in her arms. She smiles and Harvey returns it while reaching up for his son, whom his wife gladly releases into his loving arms. “What’s dynastic mean?”

“It means...well…”.

Harvey was, unusually so, flummoxed as he tried to fish in his own mind for an explanation. “Like kings and queens!” he says. “You know, the first son becomes king after the king dies usually”.

Harleen’s eyes shoot open in worry.

“You have to die for me to be president! I don’t wanna be president!”

Tears were almost coming from her eyes and Harvey laughs while giving her a one armed hug, having to ensure that Harvey junior was still safely perched in his arms. “Ohh sweetie..no, no, it doesn’t work that way for presidents” he teases. “You have to run and get elected, which means most people would vote for you”.

That seems to placate the girl who was beginning to understand. Her mother rubbing her shoulders also helping a bit. “Ohh...so...can I still be president?”

“Of course you can sweetie” he soothes. “Of course you can. One day there will be a President Harleen Dent of the United States. I think that sounds good”.

  
His green skinned wife smiles down at him, though on the inside she was a maelstrom of emotions. So many things had happened, and it was up to her as the temporary first lady to help instill calm when all she wanted to do was run to her friend to comfort her.

‘I need to spend some time with them’ she reminds herself. ‘We all do’.

“Yay! I’m gonna run for president then! And I’ll win! Everyone will vote for me”.

“That’s a good plan my little sprout” Ivy says to the girl, using her nickname for her eldest daughter. “But before you start to plan your campaign and work on your platforms sweetie, how about we focus on packing for our vacation?”

“Ohhh….I forgot about that”.

She continues to stroke her fingers through her daughters hair. Being apart from the Wayne’s for so long, a security measure, had really taken a toll on the young girl. She missed Barbara, and wanted to be there for her friends. Every night she called Martha and Mary, not having gotten a chance to see them in person since Barbara’s funeral.

“You okay sprout?”

“Yeah…”.

“Mmm nggahah...ngghh!”

“Uhh oh. Someone made a stinky” Harvey says, gently urging Harleen off of of his lap, something the young girl was eager to do after her brother messed his diaper. “I’ve got him sweetie…”.

He gently pushes Pamela’s hand away and stands, wanting to take care of this himself. Harvey was still crying. “It’s okay sweetie. I’ll do it”.

“But Harvey, you’re the president”.

“So? Presidents change diapers” he says with a smirk, moving off to the changing table they’d set up in the baby’s room. “Shhh...it’s okay buddy boy. I’ll get you nice and cleaned up. It’ll be okay”.

Harleen molds into her mother’s side and smiles up at her, while Pamela just ruffles her hair. “We’re going to be okay sweetie” she exclaims. ‘As long as we’re all together’.

**_Wayne Manor_ **

The girl was silent as she sat in the chair across from the blonde woman who was behind her desk, looking at her over the frames of her glasses. Blackfire was uncomfortable, and it didn’t help that she felt bloated and miserable. Her hand inadvertently goes to her belly, and she can’t help but smile as she rubbed her swollen stomach through the flowing dress she wore.

‘You are quite a handful….bumgorf’.

She didn’t know what to call the baby inside of her, and she was utterly conflicted, especially now that she was talking to Harleen, the psychiatrist Batwoman had suggested. ‘Mercy and Lex...they’ll be good parents. You know it. Why are you doubting your decision?’

“We’ve made excellent progress Komand’r” Harleen admits, moving her chair back a little bit to search for some files on the shelf behind her. “How so?”

“Well you are very strong” Harleen admits. “A lot of women blame themselves for what happened to them and it doesn’t appear you ever did that”.

“Why would they do that?” the alien asks curiously.

“It’s a coping mechanism. The brain’s way of trying to make sense of what happened. Highly unhealthy but it’s common...where is that book….hmm”. She stops and stands, giving the shelf another look over. “Where did I put it?”

“Put what?”

“A book I want you to have” she says, looking up and down again. “It’s just...well, a little present I guess”.

Blackfire’s eyes go wide at that, the word being foreign but still known to her. “A present? Why?” Harleen had an answer ready, though she misses the shocked expression on the young woman’s face. “Because I’m proud of you and how far you’ve come”. She stops for a moment and seems to give up on the book being within the shelf. “Let me go check in the main room. I wrapped it there”.

She moves around the desk and is stopped by Blackfire’s hand upon her wrist. She instantly halts and moves to her knees, seeing the young girl’s shoulders shake as she cries. “Nobody has ever gotten me a present before”.

Harleen hugs her tight and soothes her as best as she could, long forgetting her duty as a doctor to try and remain objective. “Well...I’m so happy to be the first sweetie”. She is unable to help herself as she kisses her forehead. “Welcome to Earth”.

The girl latches onto Harleen and the blonde doesn’t mind it at all. After a while, the Tamaranean calms down and begins to dry her cheeks. “Sorry...I’m just...very emotional”.

“Pfft..don’t be sorry sweetie. I birthed two out myself. I know how you feel. Now. Let me go find you that present okay. Stay right here”.

The woman rises and the clack of her shoes against the wooden floors could be heard all the way down the hall. Blackfire found it comforting and she takes the time to wipe her eyes free of the remaining tears. 

After a few minutes pass, the door opens again, and for a moment she thinks Harleen has entered. Instead, it was a woman who looked very similar to Harleen. “Ohh...I’m sorry, I didn’t realize Harleen had a patient”.

Blackfire, feeling in a much better mood, just smiles and nods. “That’s alright. Did you need her or something else?”

“Ohh, I was just going to ask what she wanted Alfred and me to make for dinner” the Amazonian queen says, not having given up her duties as the head maid of Wayne Manor even after becoming royalty. She did it to make a point that she still put her duties to her family before everything else, and begrudgingly the Amazons had taken up employment.

Most went into the city, looking for jobs that Elise thought they’d be able to handle. The more domestic minded stayed on at the manor, filling out some staff positions and learning what they could. It was hilarious to watch them try and figure out how to use a dishwasher or a stove, but Elise was patient. Always patient. 

Now though, something was on her mind. After all, she knew this girl.

“You’re Blackfire right? You’ve met here with Harleen a few times before”.

The girl nods in response to the woman’s question.

Elise seemed to be at an impasse now, not sure of what she should say. Finally though, she gathers the courage. “I just wanted you to know...well, you’re not alone in your situation” she explains, moving a little closer. “I mean, definitely not. There’s so many women like you, hell men too, but…” and with this she looks down at her full belly and smiles. She reaches down and takes the girl’s hand. “It takes strength to do the right thing for your baby. I’ve...heard through the grapevine that you’re going to let the Luthor’s adopt the little guy or gal?”

Blackfire is reminded of the fact that she had attended the wedding of the billionaire and his hench wench a month before. ‘Mercy’ she thinks, smiling at how the woman had taken to mothering over her like a clucking hen after Blackfire had agreed to let them adopt her child. 

The thought fills her with fear, and she doesn’t know why.

“I am” she says evenly.

“Good. Good. A lot of women might’ve done something else, and in my opinion? I don’t know. I just wanted to let you know that I know where you are, and I think you’re a real hero”.

“How would you...ohh”. 

Blackfire had cut her question off mid way, having had it occur to her that the woman was speaking from experience. Elise just nods. “Yeah”.

She had to ask a question. She needed to know.

“What...what did you do? For your baby I mean...if I can ask”.

“You can sweetie. And I’ll tell you”. At this Elise smiles. “I kept them. I had three but...only the twin girls came about...that way”.

“How?”  
  


“How what?”

“How did you...not hate them? Bring yourself to love them?”

Elise looks up as if seeking a divine answer from Hera now she would have to guess. But none was forthcoming, and she had to give an answer to the dark haired Tamaranean. “I always loved them...right from the start” she explains. “My little girls...they were a whole lot more than the sum of who their father was. They were also me, and them, and I saw all the good inside them. How beautiful they were….I could never hate them. Not without letting him win”.

“I see..”.

Elise stands up and stretches, working out a kink in her back. “Well, anyways, I better get back to work. Ohh, would you like to stay for dinner? We feed an army now practically so it wouldn’t matter too much if we had one extra”.

“No...no thank you. I have to be at...well, a special place tonight”.

Elise nods and makes to move to the door but is stopped by a final query from Blackfire. 

“Who are you? I...I never asked your name” she says, feeling that she had been rather rude in not asking to begin with.

The woman smiles and looks around the office first, taking stock in her daughter’s achievements. “Elise Quinzel” she says, making Blackfire’s eyes go wide in realization. “I’m the head maid here”.

And with that the woman turns to leave, exiting just as Harleen was coming back in, the package in her hand. “Hi mama. Everything okay?”

“Ohh yes dear. Just wanted to know what you wanted for dinner”.

“Hmm..how about meatloaf?”

“Alfred is gonna have a conniption but I’ll see what I can do to convince him” Elise jokes before she leans in and hugs her daughter who was a little surprised but nonetheless hugs her back. “Mama...everything okay? I told you already, you’re forgiven”.

“I know but...I just love you so much”.

“I love you too Mama”.

Blackfire couldn’t drag her eyes away as she watched the interaction, feeling that she was nothing more than an intruder in such a private moment. It was over quickly though, and Elise moves back into the hallway, on her way to the kitchen undoubtedly.

Harleen looks after her curiously, wondering what would’ve transpired between her mother and the girl while she was out of the room. She could tell that it was something important with how Blackfire was looking at her, and knowing her mother?  
  


She thought it was best not to pry yet. Whatever it was, undoubtedly it would help the girl to make the right decision in the long run. She was now too focused on bringing Blackfire her gift, while she sets down before her patient on the desk. “That’s for you sweetie”.

“What is it?”  
  


“Open it and find out”.

The Tamaranean was never taught any gift etiquette, and it showed as she tentatively reaches out, acting as if she was afraid it would explode. Her hands gingerly move across the packaging and soon it is fully unwrapped, the paper falling to the floor as her eyes land upon the book. 

“The Road?”

“Uhhmmm” Harleen says with a smile. “It’s one of my favorite books, and I thought you might like it. It fits your situation too” Harleen says, reaching out and placing a hand on the woman’s shoulder. “It’s about a father, which I suppose is the opposite of your situation right now, doing anything for his son, even if it means doing the hardest thing”.

Blackfire turns the book over in her hands, again and again, overcome as she was by emotion. “Harleen…”.

“Shh...don’t thank me. Just know that your fears? Of not loving your baby? Don’t have them” she explains, the two having talked about it at length. “No matter what you decide to do, just know that you’re a good mother already”.

She takes the girl’s hand and squeezes, smiling as she holds her back.

No words escape the befuddled Tamaranean’s lips, and she just looks up at the woman quietly, seeing in her the mother like care she’d never gotten from her own mother. “I...I have to go”.

“I know. You’ve got that big thing back at Miagani Island right? It’s gonna be fun. Whole city will be watching” she exclaims. “So many heroes here in Gotham. Might get kind of crowded for the Batfamily huh?” she asks not realizing that she was airing her own worries aloud.

Blackfire just nods along, hearing the faint buzz from behind her as Raina enters the study. “Comrade Blackfire..” she begins, exiting the portal. “We are both nee...ohh...izvinyayus..I didn’t realize you were…”.

“Nyet Raina” the girl teases while standing up, steadying herself as the added weight of the baby had affected her balance as of late. ‘And my ability to fly’ she grumbles mentally before instantly forgiving the child. ‘Not your fault little bumgorf. You just come soon. One day...you shall fly and your mommy and daddy will be so proud’.

Her heart aches at that thought. Not being there for their first flight, when their feet would leave the ground and their body would soar up into the air on the winds of their joy. She hides this discomfort behind a facade of happiness. “We should get back to the tower”.

She turns and smiles at Harleen one final time. “Thank you. For everything Ms. Wayne”.

“Eh, don’t mention it squirt. But don’t forget to come back anytime you want okay? Friends right?”

“Most definitely”.

With that the two female Titans enter the portal, and the whirring sound dissipates as the black portal itself collapses in on itself. Harleen was left alone in her office, assured that her patient was going to be just fine.

**_Titan’s Tower, Miagani Island, Gotham Harbor_ **

“Ahh Blackfire, Raina, dudes, you made it” the green skinned leader of the Teen Titans greets the two as the portal opens up inside the basement of the tower. The two walk out, but before Blackfire could get too far, she is held by someone wanting to assist her.

“Komand’r. How are you feeling? I wish you wouldn’t have gone to Wayne Manor alone. Are you hungry? Tired? Sore? Anything I can get…”.

“Mercy please, I am fine” the woman says with a smile, trying to push the well meaning woman off of her gently without causing any offense. Ever since she’d agreed to the adoption, Lex and Mercy Luthor had been all over her, giving her the best in medical treatment and all sorts of extra help.

Mercy was over the moon ecstatic, and that was what made Blackfire anguished inside about her self doubt. 

“Mercy please, let the woman breath”.

Lex was there instantly beside his wife, a wide smile that wasn’t natural for the man until a few months back. “But…”.

“I can assure you that I am feeling quite well” Blackfire says, assuaging the woman. “And the baby?”

“They are also perfect. Snug as a bug in a rug as the Earth expression goes”.

Mercy’s hand goes to the woman’s stomach, something she allowed all the time because of how intimate it was for the woman and her potential child. “Soon right?”

“Yes” Blackfire nods, half dreading and half anticipating the baby’s arrival.   
  
Mercy and Lex say nothing more and instead just smile at each other, excited at the prospect of being parents. “As important as this is, we also have other matters to attend to” Raina says, trying to fight off her blush. “Aww come on Rae Rae” Beast Boy teases, his goofiness and willingness to joke not wearing off in the slightest, even after being named team leader. “Let them have their moment”.

His arm goes about her shoulders in a camraderly way, something that makes the woman blush. She knew he didn’t mean anything by it. Still, it made her feel warm, a feeling she wasn’t used to. It took all within her to fend off her powers from going haywire.

“Well...maybe we should get to it”.

“Lex….”.

“Come on Mercy. For now the baby is still waiting until it’s time. Now? We have to get to this”.

He reaches into his pocket and retracts the hard drive left to him by the Flash and Hawkgirl’s defection. He turns it in his hand and inspects it further, though this look yielded no further information. ‘Cyborg’s mind’ he thinks with a wry smile. ‘Wonder what secrets are stored on here?’

It had taken months, but eventually they’d built a super computer that was safe enough for them to use the potential weapon on. It would be contained if it was some sort of trap left to them by the Justice League. “Alright dude, hand it over”.

“Why should you do it?” Lex asks, wondering why the green kid was so insistent.

“Duh, because if it blows up it’ll only be me caught in the crossfire”.

He expected a response of “because I’m team leader”, but the one he’d gotten? It thoroughly surprised him, though not so much as he might initially think if he didn’t remember who Garfield was. “Nyet. It should be me. The team leader should not be risked”.

“That’s why if I blow up you’re team leader Rae”.

“That isn’t funny” Blackfire says, crossing her arms over her chest. Terra agrees, having remained silent until now. Her arm, the one she lost, had been replaced by a steel alloy model that had rudimentary rotors to assist it in moving. Just another one of Luthor’s special projects.

“I thought it was”.

Without further ado, Lex hands off the hard drive to beast boy, who takes it gingerly in his hands. Raina had not finished though, and she moves forward, placing a hand on his chest in one of her most overt displays of affection yet. “Be careful Garfield”.

With that she leans in and pecks his cheek before stepping back, the whole team letting out a lightly teasing “ohhhhh”. The Soviet Sorceress turns red, a hue which is only more starkly contrasted against her grey skin. Garfield just shrugs it off and winks. “You got it mama”.

He turns and begins to walk towards the mainframe that stood in the center of the room, pushing back the glass container that sealed the input slot from dust. Gingerly, he inserts the hard drive, and the mainframe pulls it in.

The computer continues as normal, and Lex himself was beginning to think that nothing was wrong and that it indeed was just a compendium of League intel. Garfield turns back to the others, a confused expression on his face. “I guess…”.

“BOOOYAH!”

The boy is thrown by his surprise as the booming voice rings out in his ear, and he turns into a mouse, rushing up towards Raina who reaches down without thinking to pick him up. She takes a moment to tease the boy, a wry smile on her face. “Our brave team leader”.

The boy was cowed by this, and jumps into the air to revert into his human form, standing in front of the others who all now look, shocked, at the hologram which was above the mainframe in the center of the room.

It was Cyborg...or rather Cyborg’s head in a holographic form. “Ohh...uh..sorry, didn’t mean to scare you”.

Lex was quick on his feet, and he moves towards the kill switch located conveniently at the far side of the wall. “No! No! No! Wait!”. At those words two of the vehicular diagnostic cables swing down from above and wrap around the billionaire’s hand, stopping him from flipping the switch.

Mercy pushes Blackfire behind her and draws a pistol, aiming it at the mainframe.

“Woah! Woah!” Garfield shouts, stepping forward. “Let’s talk! Hold on! Come on, everyone relax!”

“Yeah! Yeah, come on please? We can be cool and talk right?”

“To one of Superman’s cronies” Lex spits back, still stuck in the cables. “Yeah, I know. I gotta own that. I helped him a bit, but you gotta trust me, I didn’t want to...well...Cyborg didn’t want to”.

“What do you mean?” Mercy asks. “Aren’t you Cyborg?”

“Well...yes and no? Kinda? Maybe?” the hologram says. “I’m more like...Cyborg’s memories and data banks. Not really...him though. It’s hard to explain”.

As they began to speak, Blackfire felt a slight pressure in her stomach and lower regions, though nobody knows it as they were all looking forward. She shakes it off, assuming it to be nothing. “Alright...you’ve got time. Let me go”.

“You promise not to push that button?”

“For now…”.

“Good enough for me”.

The diagnostic tubes move away from the man, allowing him free movement once more. He rubs at his wrist, glaring at the hologram. “So what...wait, no, let me guess? You feel bad about helping Superman and now, now you wanna make it all better by helping us right?”

“Yeah. I guess. I wanted to give a whole speech though. Can I still…”.

“No you can’t” Lex says, turning to Garfield. “Alright team leader. You’re up. Think we can trust him...or...whoever this is?”

“Well, kind of...maybe” the boy admits. “To be honest? Cyborg wasn’t all that much of a bad guy even while fighting for Supes. And he did wind up basically getting killed by Superman right? Soo…”.

With that he turns to Cyborg and schools his face. “You want to do what to help us exactly?”

“Modernize the tower a bit more. No offense but there are always improvements that can be done. I uhh...can give you information! Hack into computers, get you into places. Stuff like that. On site tech guru”.

“Uhhmm...and what’s the plan if you go bad again?”

“I can’t really do nothing from the tower” he says with a smirk. “When Cyborg put his parameters on me, he made it so that I cannot use offensive weapons of any sort. I can build ‘em and all, for you guys to use. But me? I can only defend...well, I guess this tower now since you put me in ya’lls mainframe”.

“Hmmm”.

Beast Boy was mulling it over, thinking about what would be best to do when Blackfire lets out a yell of surprise which was followed by the gushing sound of water. “The bumgorf is coming!” she shouts, holding her belly.

“AHHHH!” Mercy was all over her, hugging the girl tight while Lex himself was smiling ear to ear. “They’re coming! They’re coming! Ahhh!”

“Yes they are coming. Now...MAY I PLEASE GET TO A HOSPITAL!??” the suddenly enraged Tamaranean asks, unable to hold it in. “Ohh...right! Right! Lex?”

“Umm...umm...let me think. Let me think!”

“The T-Car dudes”.

“What?”

Beast Boy points over towards the vehicle that had been designed for their easy transportation and smiles, moving towards the Tamaranean and helping her towards the vehicle. “Hold on!” Cyborg shouts, and the car comes to life, its engine revving before it zips over towards them, turning at the right moment and opening the doors for them. “I’ve got access to everything. I’ll drive you to Gotham General!” the hologram shouts excitedly. 

“Are you sure we can tru…”. 

“GET US IN THE FR’GLIKIRK CAR!!” Komand’r shouts, lapsing into Tamaranean in her anger. “Okay...okay sweetie. Hold on. Hold on”. Mercy and Garfield both assist her, while Lex gets into the rear passenger seat besides her, the two expectant parents opting to go with her. They didn’t trust Cyborg yet..but they had no choice.   
  


“Garfield, you and the others stay here in case the city needs you”.

“Yes sir. Komand’r, we love you sis. We’ll see you soon”.

The girl was in too much pain and just gnashed her teeth in response, making the boy think he’d get his head physically bitten off if he got any closer. The doors close and the car begins to speed off, heading down the ramp and across the bridge off the island into the city.

“Don’t worry guys. The baby and Blackfire are gonna be a okay”.

“They better vedro s boltami” Raina says in a threatening tone before being joined by Terra. “We will break you if she isn’t”.

“It’s cool. I promised” the hologram says worriedly. 

Garfield inspects the machine facsimile gravely and asks a question. “We aren’t gonna call you Cyborg. So...what do we call you?”

The hologram seems to think about it for a moment, the lifelike expressions hinting at its uncertainty. Finally though, it settles on something.

“Hmmm...how about...Grid?”

**_East Gotham_ **

“Keep your eyes closed Adriane!”

The woman smiles to herself, but indeed keeps her eyes shut. “If this is another one of your games Ares, you should tell me now so I can begin to undress” the woman says, having become quite insatiable in her love life since consummating her relationship with the man.

He chuckles to himself and shakes his head, though she couldn’t see it herself. “No, no. It is...well, perhaps our future”.

“Do not speak in riddles to me my love. You know how I hate them”.

“Ahh yes. A challenger to the Sphinx you are not” he teases.

The two looked like a normal couple that you’d find everyday, walking around Gotham. They both wore jeans and a t-shirt, though Ares also wore a flannel button up over it. It was comical almost, to see the god of war and an Amazonian general in such casual clothing.

He led her forward by the hand until stopping, when he finally moved around her and places his hands on her waist and his chin upon her shoulder. “Okay, you may open your eyes”. She does as he bid, and with her sight restored to her, she sees a small building in front of her and is confused by it. It was rather rectangular, and had what appeared to be a metal facade. 

“Ares...what is this?”

“It’s what the mortals call a diner” he exclaims excitedly. “A restaurant. They come to eat at all hours of the day”. He leans in and kisses her neck. “I have decided to become a cook and..well...I want us to work here together. Perhaps some of your sisters as well”.

“Ares, none of us know anything about a restaurant or how to run it!” she says worriedly. “Well, we shall learn then. If I have you with me, I feel like...well, I feel as if I can do anything”.

His words were like a spear against the monster of her worry, and it was vanquished instantly. She rubs his hand as it circles about her midsection. “And what am I to do at this...diner?” she asks, the word coming out uncomfortably due to never having used it before this situation.

“A waitress” he explains. “An old man told me that they take the customer’s order, and bring it to the cook. Basically they serve them!”.

“I am nobody’s slave Ares!” she fumes.

“No, no..you get paid for it! And they leave tips as well! Money for bringing them water. Can you believe it?”

“Money?”

It was one of the things Adriane enjoyed, having already received some for some light work as a bodyguard at the Iceberg Lounge. Many of her sisters had taken posts there, but the uniform...it was a bit too revealing for her liking. ‘We did keep it though’ she teases herself mentally. ‘For Ares’.

The god of war especially liked the way it showcased her body in the rear.

‘We could buy Ares and the others gifts!’ she thinks excitedly.

“Hmm...perhaps this waitress position does not sound quite so awful” she admits, causing the man to kiss her passionately by turning her head. “That is the amazonian general I love. Fearless. Charges into any situation without even thinking!”.

“Only if I have you by my side my love” she says before looking at the diner again. Much needed to be done to it to get it cleaned up. Ares had gold of course, but that gold hadn’t been enough to buy him a fully repaired diner it seemed. ‘That or he likes the challenge’ she wonders before realizing it was indeed the fact of wanting a challenge. 

“Well...let us go and clean up our..diner. We cannot keep calling it Diner” she says, wondering what they would name their restaurant. “What shall we call it then my dear?”

She looks at him and wracks her mind over a name, wondering before it comes to her. With a wide smile she lets it leave her lips, savoring the look on his face as he awaits her answer. 

“The Olympus Diner”.

**_Gotham General, Maternity Ward_ **

“One more push princess. Almost there!” the doctor urges her on, and in true Tamaranean form she listens, putting all her force into one last push as the baby leaves her body and their cries echo out instantly. “We’ve got them! We’ve got them!”.

“Ohh…”.

  
She couldn’t say much, and instead panted heavily, sweating as Mercy comes up to wipe it away. “Ohh Blackfire! You did so good! Perfect!”. The woman was gushing again, though Blackfire couldn’t hear her over the sound of the baby crying. “Is...are they…” she asks tiredly.

The doctors were too busy cleaning whoever her baby was to answer, but soon enough the crying bundle was cleaned off and swaddled, the sex of the baby checked with a glance. “It’s a boy! A beautiful bouncing baby boy!” the doctor says.

“Can I hold him?”

Mercy, already cooing down at the bundle and reaching out for them, is stopped by Lex, whose face had fallen at seeing Blackfire’s reaction to the child. He closes his eyes and lets out a deep sigh, almost praying that he was wrong. ‘Lex...do the right thing’.

“Oh my little baby boy...so adorable! So perfect!”

Mercy was over the moon, and already reaching out for the child, seeing nothing other than the baby in front of her. She’d always wanted a baby, but she was told that she shouldn’t due to her carrying the gene for hemophilia, which was passed down to boys through the maternal line. Now she had a chance to be a mother, and she could see nothing else in front of her but the baby crying out for a mother. 

It was heartbreaking for Lex for both of these reasons. 

But he knew that Komand’r had been through so much as well.

“Mercy...let K hold the baby..”.

Mercy was confused for moment, wanting to be the very first to hold who she already considered her son but that confusion gave way to understanding. “Ohh...ohh of course...yes, well, it’s only fair”.

The doctors move over to Komand’r in the bed, and slowly hand the baby boy down to her. With a light smile she sits up and cradles him, looking down at him and committing every detail to her memory. He had a little bit of peach fuzz hair already, and it was black in color. In many ways, he looked exactly like Kal El, and that sent a thrill of horror up her spine. She wants to hand the baby off to Mercy for exactly one second, and if something hadn’t occurred she would’ve.

The baby opened his eyes.

When he opens them, she sees her own deep purple irises within him, and they stare up right into her soul, squashing any fears instantly that she wouldn’t love him.

  
She already did. With all of her heart.

Like all Tamaranean babies, he was hardy and was able to do many things immediately after birth that most infants might not be able too. He had much better hand eye coordination than a human baby, and she watches as his hand breaks free of the blankets and reaches up to her. It was a natural thing for Tamaranean babies to do. Reach out to their mother to bond through contact.

She smiles eagerly and leans in to kiss his cheeks and lips and really anywhere else on his face that she could reach. “Ohh…”. It’s all she can say as tears begin to streak down her face. She was left with a dilemma now, one that would break more than just her heart. 

She looks up at Mercy who was eagerly waiting at the side of the bed for the baby to be handed off to her. Her briefcase was already on the side of the room, undoubtedly filled with whatever legal paperwork was needed. Mercy Luthor, nee Graves was always so prepared.

For everything except this. 

Lex was though, and she could see it in his eyes as he stood behind his wife. An uncharacteristic tear leaks from his eye, his own heartbreak evident. He supports her though, and he nods his head.   
  
“Well...I don’t want to sound rude or, rush but...can I hold him?”.

Blackfire only holds him tighter to her, knowing that she could never let him go. She looks down with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry Mercy”.

“Sorry for what? You didn’t do anythin…”.

It occurs to her, and suddenly the joy induced fog that was over her eyes was lifted and replaced with heartbreaking clarity. At first she is blank faced, unable to let any emotion free at that moment. Slowly her eyes water, and the waterfalls begin, soaking her skin. “I...I…”.

“I’m so sorry Mercy” Blackfire repeats, unable to say anything else other than that one truth that wouldn’t leave her at the moment. She was horribly sorry, and she felt as if her heart was being torn in two. But for her son? She’d let her heart be torn.

Mercy holds up her hand to stop her. “Don’t….I don’t blame you. I’m...I don’t know how to explain it right now. I’m destroyed...but I don’t blame you”. She lets loose a light and fake chuckle to mask her sadness. “If I was you? I’d do the same thing”.

She sniffles and collects herself, letting Lex hug her close as they share their misery. “You’re just a young girl Komand’r...so if you ever need any help, you don’t hesitate to call me or Lex okay?”

“I won’t”.

Blackfire was happy about one thing. The relationship between her and the Luthor’s would continue, at least she hoped. “And...well….just...is it okay if we...send presents on his birthday and…”.

“You come and see him anytime you want” Blackfire says, trying to soothe her with something that was well below what she truly wanted. “I want you to be his...godparents would be the term on Earth”.

They smile at that, though it was more the ringings of a consolation prize. They nod in agreement however, finding it an honor beyond words. “Would...would you like to hold him for a little while?” she asks, secure now that she knew her desire was out in the open and respected.

“No...not right now...I...I can’t…”.

Komand’r understood and would never fault the woman. Indeed she didn’t want the baby to leave her arms at that moment anyways. “Excuse me”. With that, Mercy rushes from the room, barely able to make it three feet until bursting into loud sobs that shake everyone to the core. Lex makes to rush after her, but stops to look at Komand’r one last time. 

“I...this changes nothing between us K” he says. “We still love and care for you. You’re family. Just...give us a little time”.

“Take all the time you need. I’d hate me in your shoes”.

He lets out a wry smile. “No you wouldn’t. You’re a good woman”. He casts a glance at the baby he was fully prepared to accept as his son. “He’s in good hands”. With that, the man is gone and Komand’r is left with a few nurses who were cleaning and monitoring her vitals.

She focused on nothing but the baby, whom she allows to latch onto her breast that she exposes through her gown. As he latches and begins to feed, she runs her fingers through his hair. “Your name is Konn’r. Do you know what that means little boy? It means beloved hope. That is what you are to me. My little hope. And you are loved” she whispers to him, gently rocking the Tamaranian/Kryptonian hybrid.

“I am your mother, and I vow to protect you and love you, no matter what”.

She remembers Elise’s words, which drift like the wind through her mind. “You are the best of me, and the best of yourself, which means one day? You are going to change the world. People will look up at you and see what I am seeing now. A beloved hope”.

The baby doesn’t respond, though he doesn’t know what he’d say if he could even speak. Instead he just continues to look up at his mother, enjoying the comforting tone of her voice. Their eyes locked onto one another, and even after his begin to close due to sleepiness, hers remain upon him.

Yes. Konn’r was loved.


	36. Chapter 36

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, last chapter of Judgement Over Gotham to set us up for the finale! You guys ready? Hopefully I'll have the first chapter of our last story out tommorrow but if not please don't fault me for taking a break haha.

**_Justice Society of Gotha….America Headquarters_ **

“Alright well...whose gonna lead us then?”

The question was left in the air, given a voice by John Constantine, though it was clear nobody had an answer. Because of this the entire assembled group looks at the man, who notices their stares after a few moments.

“No way, no sodding way” he protests. “Can’t be me”.

“Why not?”

He turns to see Vixen, batting her eyes coquettishly at him. “Dating the team leader would certainly mean a few perks for me”. At this the group assembled around the table laughs uproariously, enjoying the down time that they were now being provided with as a result of the end of the siege.

As soon as the laughter dies the silence returns, and the exorcist’s question still looms large in everyone’s mind. “Well...should we...put it to a vote?” Giganta asks nervously, while her husband twists himself into a much beefier version of himself. “If so I nominate me? Whose voting for the Plas Man?”

Silence descends on the room and all of them try to contain their laughter at the idea of the stretchable hero leading their team. They knew it was just another joke, but still, his expression was priceless when everyone’s hand remained down. “You’re all meanies”. One hand does raise though, and his wife smiles from beside him, happily voting for her husband. Eel smiles and lowers into his chair again, resuming his normal shape. 

“Only vote that matters anyway”.

The woman, having once been a gorilla apparently, having been changed into the woman she was today, powers included, by the mad scientist who held her in a cage. She was naive, almost childlike, but she was well matched with the shape altering hero who always looked out for her despite his jester like attitude.

Even now he just held her hand, causing the other members of the newly formed team to take stock of what they found. Instantly Question turns to Black Canary and smiles under his mask, while Tora kisses Hawkman’s cheek and Vixen winks at John. 

“There’s no need for a vote”.

Luthor enters alongside Batman and Batwoman, each appearing rather stoic considering the fact that they’d won possibly the greatest battle that the world had ever seen. Their eyes were on the horizon, and the threats they saw coming over it were too numerous to list and count. 

Luthor takes his seat at the head of the table, joined on either side by Batman and Batwoman who take seats opposite one another. “Heya Lex”.

“John”.

He notices the man’s sadness in his tone, and instantly he was curious as to what would put something like that there. His eyes too, they gave it away. Something had happened, but if it was a personal issue or something more? He couldn’t tell. ‘Guess we’ll have to wait and see’.

“Are you okay Luthor?”

“Ja, you seem...upset”.

“I’m fine” he says dismissively, trying to move back to the matter at hand. The questions didn’t stop coming though. “Where’s the missus?” Eel asks, noting that this might be the first time he saw the man without Mercy. “She’s….”. Lex stops and sighs, knowing that he would have to explain or the queries wouldn’t stop. “Mercy and I had a bit of...well...I don’t know what to call it, but it was...is” he corrects, “very hard on us. She wants to take a little time for herself and so do I after this conversation. However, we do have to discuss the future leadership of our Society, and the situation we find ourselves in”.

At this point, Katana and Montoya walk into the meeting room, and wait for the man to continue, the police commissioner obviously having been summoned. “Commissioner Montoya” Lex says with a bit of warmth in his voice. She returns the smile, though in a much more nervous manner. ‘Dios mio...so many heroes’. She wasn’t used to being around quite so many metahumans and she felt utterly outclassed.

Katana was, as usual, a sea of calm that provided her immense comfort. 

“Mr. Luthor” she greets back, shaking the man’s hand in her own and turning to the Justice Society. “Umm...hello. I am commissioner Montoya, well...most of you know that”. She chuckles to herself, trying to alleviate the tension. She was only good at dealing the Bat family so far, which was making this a lot harder. Lex was there to help her though, and surprisingly enough Batman and Batwoman being there was also a bit of a plus.

“Commissioner Montoya is here to explain how things have...changed on a national and federal level. She’ll also be explaining what that means for Gotham and the Justice Society. The floor is yours Commissioner”.

He moves to sit back down, leaving her at the head of the table with Katana beside her, daring with a glare anyone to make a joke or laugh. Eel was about to say something, but Giganta, fearful of the samurai and what she would do to anyone who further teased her girlfriend, heads him off and clamps a hand over his mouth.

Renee however, had calmed herself down. ‘Come on Renee’ she pumps herself up. ‘You talk to people and give them orders and what not all the time. Grow up!’. With that she feels ready to begin her speech. “Well, hello everyone. We may or may not have met sporadically throughout the last few months. Haven’t gotten much time to know each other outside of the wars but, hey. That’s behind us now. By necessity, we’re going to have to be working together now. By that I mean the Justice Society and the GCPD”.

“What do you mean by that commish?” Batwoman asks, wanting to help the woman out as well. Renee was thankful, and seizes on that to deliver the next part of her news. “On a federal level, the United States government has outlawed groups of Superheroes. They don’t want a repeat of the Justice League” she explains.

“Come on!” Eel shouts out, having escaped his girlfriend’s grasp. “That’s ridiculous. We aren’t like those guys”.

“Whose to say though?” Deadshot asks. “I mean, for all they know we could be just another group waiting to seize power”. Cheetah seems to be in agreement with him, but Louise, now having softened her name simply to Frost, crosses her arms over her chest and scowls.

“I get both of your points” Renee says, placing her hands down on the table to steady herself, trying to meet everyone in the eye. “We don’t want to penalize you guys for the actions of someone else. Trust me, we want the Justice Society of America out there, kicking ass and taking names. But the problem is, we need society at large to trust us”.

“What do you mean us?” Canary asks.

“Exactly what I said” Renee explains. “Us. Mayor Dent was able to extract some serious concessions from the government, especially in some of the subsequent papers I’m not even sure congress led. By law, the GCPD is the most autonomous police force in the country. We’re one step below being our own nation if you think about it. Swiss guard, Vatican city kind of deal, but...less. Really? There’s been no precedent for it until now”.

“I have a feeling I know where you’re going with this” the faceless detective says, though his wife was still utterly confused. “What? What does she mean?”

“I mean that the Justice Society wont be allowed to operate on its own. That’s illegal under the new Waller Act”.

“Fucking Waller”.

Constantine’s utterance drew universal approval and agreement up and down the line of heroes, none of them liking the woman who simply stamped her authority over the city they so desperately fought to protect. “Bad enough she took the big baddie after all the work was done, but now she’s gotta put handcuffs on us? It ain’t right mate”.

“Regardless of if it’s right or wrong” Luthor interjects. “It’s something we’ve gotta deal with for now. We need the world to trust us, and in order to do that, we need to play by the rules. We don’t govern. We just assist. We have to keep our charter to that to keep the waters from getting grey”.

Nobody was assuaged by that answer, but most likely it was the best they could possibly hope for at this point in time. “Alright...sooooo...what does that mean?”

“It means that in order to keep your relative autonomy, AND keep your butts out of jail for doing the right thing, you’ll be deputized members of the GCPD”.

This proclamation drew a far more varied group of response than before, and John was obviously the key leader in the “against” faction. “No soddin’ way. No offense Montoya, you’re a nice bird and all, but I don’t wanna be at the beck and call of no police department”.

“I agree with John” Canary says. “I mean, it wasn’t all that long ago that the police were working for the various crime bosses in Gotham”.

Their partners however, we clearly not in agreement, though they were diplomatic in voicing their sentiments. “Baby...I think it might be a good idea” Vixen cajoles her boyfriend. “I mean, it’s not like we’ll be writing parking tickets and stuff right?” She stops and looks over at Montoya. “We wont be writing parking tickets right?”.

The look on her face as she practically prayed that that wasn’t being expected of her was glorious, and Renee could just barely contain her laughter at the idea of the woman, the glamorous super model and heroine, writing up a ticket for a belligerent old woman who’d double parked her car. 

“No, no..nothing like that” she says, calming their fears. “All it would be really is you’d submit a report to me on your activities and I’d do a press release when it was important. Really it would just be keeping up appearances”.

Hawkman was already clearly on board, as was Cheetah. Frost was still a holdout though, and undoubtedly she’d have to be convinced when she got home with the other two. Tora and Giganta seemed to be on board too, thinking it rather fun to be part of the police force. “Do we get hats?” Gigant asks curiously while Tora smiles wide

“That is a utmerket idea!”

“I...well...I guess for those that want them? Yeah, sure. Why not?”

That sealed the deal for the two woman who turn and giggle at each with girlish excitement. “I still don’t like it”. Constantine was the only open hold out left, and Vixen was soon at work, whispering in his ear and smirking to herself. Nobody could hear what she said, but the man’s blush and his own smile was enough to go on. 

“Well then...I guess I have an incentive to be a team player then”.

Vixen just sat back in her seat and smiles in a self satisfied way, eager herself for whatever it was that she had promised John. “Well then…” Lex says. “It’s settled. The Justice Society will remain, on paper, a subsidiary of the GCPD with the added bonus of being declared city Marshalls. That gives you practically jurisdiction over the nation, allowing you to pursue criminals where you may find them”.

“What about internationally?” Hawkman asks.

“Well….case by case basis. Most countries would probably be okay with letting us in. Others might have to be asked and a few more will flat out deny it” the bald man admits. “The Soviet Union at least has already made it clear that you are welcome...with limits. It’s the Soviets so lets not pretend they wont be keeping secrets” he says. “Just because we’re friendly with some of their citizens, doesn’t mean that we’ll be turning a blind eye when they do something wrong”.

The whole room agreed on that, and so had Raina and Terra when he’d interviewed them. They had to receive a special dispensation from Premier Ludavenko, the new leader of the Soviet Union, to even stay within Gotham. ‘Not that Raina would’ve left Garfield’s side anyways’ he jokes to himself.

“Alright well...that’s really it on the legal front. If one of you could just sign this paper...one sheet” she shows them by lifting the page into the air. “Want to keep the pork to a minimum. You also all have copies of your group charter. I just need someone...to….sign…”.

She looks around, still wondering who it would be. “As a leader?”

She finishes with a question, hoping that someone would stand up. All eyes move to Batman, without whom much of this wouldn’t have been possible. He financed and fought, though one was done secretly, tooth and nail for this city and this group of heroes. Now? They wanted him to do one more thing. 

He stands, ready to address them. “I….”.

“Accept the position” Harleen interjects, knowing that Bruce was going to turn them down. She could see it in his eyes. He wanted to cave in on himself and what he knew, but at the end of the day she knew that his ability to do that would forever be hampered by the role he played.

She stares into his eyes, trying to communicate what needed to be said. 

‘They need you Bruce. You’re an inspiration. You’re not doing this alone’.

Those were just a few of her thoughts, but luckily for her they seem to be captured by the man who looks up and down the table, gauging the support he’d have for such an act as assuming leadership. Nobody seems opposed, and that’s what frightened him.

‘I’m just one man’ he reminds himself. ‘I fail. I failed Barbara, Jason...so many’. He feels his hand moving, almost as if it wasn’t of his own accord. A voice whispers in his mind, one that felt like he knew it. 

_ “You didn’t fail my little girl. I did...sign it. Lead them. For her. She’d want you to” _

When he looks down again, the fog moving from his mind, he sees that he has written Batman upon the dotted line, signifying that he would lead the Justice Society to the best of his ability. It also put a legal and definiable role on him within Gotham, something he wasn’t ready for mentally at this point in time.

He puts the pen down, hiding his inner conflict to the best of his abilities while Harleen comes up beside him and takes his hand, trying to reassure him with her very presence. He squeezes back, not knowing what else to do as everyone began to clap, standing and cheering on their new leader.

‘They don’t even know who you are’ he wonders to himself. ‘Yet they’ll follow you?’

Perhaps the bat symbol had done a bit more than simply inspire. It gave them hope. A hope they desperately needed in the dark waning hours where stronger men would be forgiven for giving up. 

“Well….that’s it” Luthor says as soon as the applause ended. “I...well…”.

It was clear he didn’t know what he wanted to do next, though Tora had an idea that she eagerly wanted to share. “Ohhh! Ohh! Batman! Batman! Velg meg! Velg meg!”

“Tora sweetie” Harleen laughs. “This isn’t a classroom. What’s your idea?”

The woman was cowed by that, and slowly she lowers her head, being a bit embarrassed. “A pizza party” she mumbles, not being heard by half of the room. “What?”

“A pizza party” she says a little louder, worried that people would say her idea was stupid or juvenile. Luckily, she was among friends. Friends eager for a little childishness. “I want to try some pizza” Giganta says while Deadshot looked particularly enthused at the idea, though he tried to hide it. “Pizza? Yikes, bad for my figure” Vixen teases out. “I’ll stick with a salad”.

“As long as you’ve got a couple of pints lined up for me, I’m in”.

As the room descended into madness, Luthor stands and calms everyone down. “Alright, alright. I’ll order pizza. On me”.

“Whoohooo!”

“Luthor!”

“Yeah!”

It was nice, to see a moment where they could breathe and be excited or happy about something. Even something so simple as a slice of greasy bread and cheese. Bruce however, had something else on his mind, and he turns to Katana who bows rigidly at his approach. Renee stands still, herself not bound by the rigid structure of Bushido, but she was beyond curious as to what the man had to say.

Judging by his body language? 

It was important.

“Katana, Commissioner. Following the festivities….we have something to show you” he says. “We may leave at your order Shogun”. Harleen was quick to interject, wanting to nip that idea right in the bud. “Eheh..we’ll stay and mingle with our new friends” she says. “We need to Batman”. 

He doesn’t protest, though with Harley he rarely did. “Fine. But following this, we have something important..”.

“She heard you Batman, now, come over here and talk with some of the Justice Society about anything other than business!” she says, pushing him into John and Vixen, the latter two having heard the woman’s words. John wastes no time in lighting a cigarette, flagrantly ignoring the signs posted all about that said “no smoking”.

“So...got any hobbies?”

Bruce had to fight not to groan at such a ludicrous question. Harleen however, was taking great joy in pushing him out of his comfort zone. It was something that she was sure would momentarily soothe the great aches in both of their hearts.

**_Three Hours Later, Road Leading to the Batcave_ **

“Woah, umm...Batman?” Renee asks from her seat in the rear of the armored vehicle, seated as she was next to an also curious, but silent, Katana. “Hmm?”

“What are you doing and where are we going?”

“Just...wait commish” Batwoman says, turning in her seat to look the woman in the eyes as best as she could. “Just wait a little bit”. She then turns back, facing forward, not wanting to give away any more information than she already had. 

The Batmobile continues down its path, and quickly moves into what looked like a solid wall of stone. Renee panics and reaches out for Katana who didn’t quite know what to make of all this, but trusted that her Shogun would not lead her into a death without honor. 

She was proven right when the stone parts quickly before the batmobile, allowing the car to descend down a steel ramp into the cave. It soon dawns on Renee, and it dawns rather heavily, that she was being taken into the batcave. She didn’t know what to think or say, so she decided to not say anything, at least for the moment.

The batmobile soon stops and skids into its assigned sparking spot, right in front of the entire cave. She can see through the windows, and what she sees absolutely astounds her. Relics from many of the bat family’s capers fill the subterranean hideout, and she was already wanting to jump out and look at all of them.

Batman turns and regards the two for a moment before nodding to himself, apparently having come to some sort of conclusion. “Welcome to the batcave”.

With that he and Harleen exit the car, and leave the canopy open for Renee and Tatsu to exit. Renee does it slowly, though Tatsu was much quicker, reading between the lines to guess that they hadn’t just been brought her for fun.

The batfamily was a tight knit clan that didn’t let in outsiders without reason.

If they were here, they were no longer considered outsiders.

That thought made Tatsu smile.

“For a long time we’ve fought together” the man says as he begins to speak while walking with Batwoman towards the lockers. His utility belt comes off and is added to a small table where he would work to replenish the gear or do quick reapers should they be needed. “You’ve proven that you can be trusted, time and time again, and after everything that’s happened, and how we are to be working…”.

At this he pauses, wanting to find the right words to use.

“Much more closely together…”.

It was the best he could do. After all, he was already collaborating with the GCPD in a way many other heroes would find unthinkable in their line of work. “We’ve decided to take yet another leap of faith”. At this, Harleen jumps in, stripping off her gloves and smiling at the two women. “That means you’re gonna get an inside look at our little club”.

“Wait...you mean you’re gonna tell us who…”.

Before Renee could fully ask the question, Bruce reaches up and lifts his cowl off, exposing the back of his head first, as he was facing the table, and shocking the two lovers into silence, though Tatsu had remained silent through the whole process. Slowly Bruce turns, and his gaze lands on the police commissioner and Katana.

“Bruce Wayne…”.

“Yes”.

“Then that means…”.

She turns to Batwoman just in time to see her remove her own cowl, a light smile across her lips. “Yup. The one and only Harleen Wayne”. Tatsu bows once again, wanting to continue honoring her Shogun. She was overwhelmed by the trust this represented, and she was under no illusions that this was not a secret she would take to her grave. 

“We’re trusting you, because you’ve proven time and time again that you can be trusted” Bruce explains while moving back towards them. “In order for us to really fully rely on each other, you have to know who I am, and why I do what I do”.

“You...you’re parents?”

Bruce stops and looks down before nodding. “And many others. We do this for the living as well as those who we’ve lost”.

Harleen steps into his side, wanting to present a united front and show them just how she would stand by Bruce. “What...what about Barbara? Your daughter? The coroner said that she was killed by a fall here at Wayne Manor”.

Bruce reaches out for Harleen and hugs her close, as he was want to do whenever Barbara’s name was mentioned. “She was killed by a fall...but it wasn’t at Wayne Manor”.

It all clicked to the woman, and she remembered when her unit had come into the sewers beneath Gotham to remove the bodies of Barbara Gordon the elder and James Gordon. “She was killed there...wasn’t she?”

“Yes”.

“That explains why I stopped seeing her” she says sadly, wondering why the female Robin had disappeared. With everything that had happened she didn’t get a chance to ask, though that reminds her that both Robins had fallen off of the face of the Earth.

“Jason...is he…”.

“He was the other Robin yes”.

  
“Is he okay?”    
  
She had to ask as an officer of the law. If the boy was in continued danger? Well...she didn’t know what she would do, but the fact that Barbara was dead rocked her deeply when she first heard. Only to hear now that she was dead because of her nighttime activities as a vigilante? She didn’t know what to think. Not at this moment.

“He’s fine” Batman supplies. “After what happened...I forced him to give it up”.

Renee’s eyes narrow in anger. “Why did you let them take it up in the first place?” It was an answer that was deeply uncomfortable, and the pain it caused could be seen on both parent’s faces. Tatsu steps forward, making to stop her girlfriend from speaking, feeling that her words would offend her shogun. It was an uncomfortable experience for the Japanese woman, to be between her lover and the Batman.

“It was a mistake”.

“A mistake that cost a girl her life!” Montoya shouts, beginning to pace in her anger. She couldn’t think straight. She was furious. She’d never expected this! When she brought the children to Wayne Manor, she had no idea that they’d be put into even more danger because of it.

Bruce remains quiet, not wanting to say anything that woul further arouse the woman’s justified rage. He knew this would happen, and part of him was reveling in the fact that it had come. He deserved it. He needed it.

Renee puts her head in her hands and shakes it back and forth. “Dammit...what can I do?”

“Whatever you need to”.

“WHAT I NEED AND WANT ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS NOW!” she shouts out angrily. “I want to take you in. I want to. If anything just for Babrara. Hell reckless endangerment and manslaughter! Both of you!”

She stops there though and thinks about what had happened recently, and part of her curses the two bats for choosing now, when they were practically indispensable to the cause. The one saving grace was that the pain in their eyes was easily identifiable. 

She’d seen the Wayne’s over the ears, popping in every so often. She knew they were happy, and Barbara despite being an angsty teenage girl, was happy too. ‘They probably chose this’ she thinks, wondering why that thought was coming to her now.

_ “She did”  _

She stops and looks up, swearing that she could hear Jim Gordon’s voice.  _ “She chose this Montoya. She wanted to be a hero...she is a hero”. _

‘Now you’re hearing things’.

She shakes her confusion away, knowing that the others were undoubtedly seeing how she looked like a dazed space cadet at that moment. “Alright Wayne...listen to me”.

She turns and advances on the man, seeing the Batman in a whole new light, and it wasn’t one that was infallible as he once had been. “I’m watching you. Like a hawk. Comprende? I’ve given you a lot of slack. Too much over the years because I trusted you…”.

“And you can’t anymore?”   
  


The question was honest, and she’d answer it as honestly as she could. “Not as much as I used to, no” she admits. “But at the end of the day I know the city still needs you. But like I said...I’m watching you”.

She goes silent at the next words she had to say. “I’ll never forgive you for what you did”.

That hit Harleen the most, not only because of her rather friendly relationship with the commissioner but also because of her underlying guilt. Bruce held onto it too. ‘Barbara was a good soldier’ he thinks to himself. ‘She will never be forgotten. But the war goes on’.

He repeated that many times in his head, whenever things got tough and he wasn’t sure if he could handle it. It was a mantra that was very successful in keeping his guilt where it belonged. 

“Take us home”.

It was an order, and he knew that the meeting and good will they’d shared was over. It was best to simply take the commissioner home where she’d undoubtedly be talking to Tatsu about this situation. Whatever they decided, he knew that it was worth the risk he’d taken. He had to do the right thing, and the right thing was always worth doing.

“Okay”.

Harleen was crying at this point, and Bruce turns and places his hands on her shoulders. “Stay here. Go tuck the kids in. I’ll be back”.

With that he turns and walks over to the batmobile, deciding to escort the duo into the city where they could get transport back to their apartment. The drive was silent, and for that Bruce was grateful. Neither said a word from when the canopy closed to when it opened outside of a closed deli in a relatively safe part of the city. 

Only Tatsu bowed again and said that her vows were still binding, that she would follow him into battle as always. It was light comfort for what he felt they had, as a family, lost. 

He’d fight his hardest to get it back. 

He promised that to himself if only for the sake of Gotham. For now he had to return home. They had a vacation to pack for. 

**_‘Eth Alth’eban, Pakistan_ **

She stood atop the pole, balancing perfectly with her eyes covered by a blindfold. Only the wind, blowing gently down from the high peaks of the Hindu Kush blew gently through her hair, causing the strands to sway upon the wind.

  
One group of strands however, sways differently than the direction of the wind, and she reacts with an impeccable speed to jump forward onto another pole she couldn’t herself see. The arrow breezed past her, just missing her by centimeters.

There was no time to relax however, as another flurry of the arrows rains down upon her. She drops down, her fingers gripping the edge of the upright pole and allowing her to use the momentum she gained by swinging back and forth in the empty air to launch herself upward.

She twists and twirls in the air, avoiding more deadly projectiles while her own hand reaches down for the crossbow that had been tucked in her belt. Without even thinking she fires a bolt while still in the air, triangulating the position of the bowmen just by instinct.

The sound of a grunt of pain alerts her that her aim was true, and she lands perfectly, poised upon the top of a wooden beam on the opposite side of where she had started. She waits for the telltale signs of a continued attack, but nothing comes and soon clapping could be heard.    
  


“Well done my Huntress” the voice calls out. “Very well done”.

Barbara reaches up and pushes the blindfold off of her eyes, searching for Ras who was standing in the viewing seats above the ancient temple where the League trained. Directly to his right, Bronze Tiger was pinned to the wall by his shoulder. He was trying to pull the bolt out of his body but failed as Barbara had altered the tips to open like a multi pronged fish hook following their slicing into the intended victim.

Lady Shiva walks up and smirks at her compatriots pained expression. “Huntress really has perfected her own little craft”.

Suddenly another projectile shoots out of the darkness, aimed directly at the still crouching girl. She narrowly avoids it by pushing herself forward, knowing that this particular attacker would follow up with a much more personal assault. 

The other girl throws herself out, her sword held high as she makes to spear the redheaded girl through the back. She overshot her target, and her mind was thrown into disarray. She could see every move her opponent could possibly make at any given time. She know how to react and what to do, but against this woman? Nothing of the sort was possible.

Barbara didn’t rely on thought. She was pure instinct, honed over years by Bruce and Harleen Wayne, and now a much more sinister master. 

  
Ras Al Ghul.

This confusion allows the girl to almost slip off of the wooden pilings, and her sword clatters uselessly below her, disappearing into the darkness. Nobody knew how deep it went, but they were assured that they never wanted to find out. 

“Dammit!”

“Were you looking for this?”

The voice comes from behind her, and for a moment she thinks she has a chance. Drawing her knife, she turns and makes to thrust the blade deep into the girl’s guts, seeing how she wouldn’t expect such a quick reaction. It would bring her no small amount of joy to be able to spill her guts in front of Ras, to show him that she was meant to be his true heir!

Such was not to be, at least not now.

Her blade finds only empty air, and only too late does she realize that the voice came from below her, not behind. Barbara rockets up from the depths below, having used the darkness to her advantage, and before the girl can even react, a thin slice has made its way up her back, courtesy of her own blade. She falls forward and is only just able to maintain her grip, dangling as she was between two wooden platforms. She was stuck, and she knew it.

Barbara raised the sword, but does nothing as her eyes move to Ras, waiting for the man’s order. He was more than pleased. Ecstatic in fact. “No Huntress...I do believe you know what lesson I have imparted on this matter”.

“Do not listen to him!”

Another man rolls out of the darkness as if he was more than a man, and indeed the very presence of the mortals around him was offensive. Deathstroke stood imperiously next to Ras, a man amongst men. “Kill her, for the unforgivable crime of being weak”.

“Father!”

Rose was in disbelief, and even now she struggled to get up from her position. Barbara stops her though, the tip of her own sword pressing into her back. “Make your decision Barbara Wayne!” Ras shouts. “Decide”.

Barbara looks at the two men, each warring for control over her psyche and thoughts. She knew it, but she couldn’t fight it. Her rage. Her anger. The fire that burned deep within her core...it kept her going and sustained her in ways she never had been before.

“Father please!” Rose shouts out again, fear in her voice. Gone was the confidence that led her into her foolhardy attack, and in its place was fear.

Fear.

Barbara knew all about fear.

  
Slowly she retracts the blade and sheathes it at her waist. “I claim this sword by right of conquest” she says simply, not liking to speak more than what was necessary. Words were more of a weapon than steel, and oftentimes one could just as easily be killed by what they said as they could by a blade.

Ras smiles and nods. “Very well. Ravager…” he calls out, addressing Rose as Barbara helps her to her feet. As soon as she is up the blonde throws the girl’s arm off of her shoulder, refusing to be further embarrassed. 

“Yes Master”.

“I think it best if you train under Huntress for a while” he explains, undisguised mirth on his face while he watches Shiva assist Bronze Tiger in trying to remove the crossbow bolt which still had him pinned. Blood was seeping down onto the concrete below, though the man was no stranger to blood loss. 

“Move forward!” the martial artist hisses. “I need to cut off the head!”.

“I can’t!” the pinned man says. “It’s stuck!”

Deathstroke casts a look down upon his daughter who looks away herself in shame. The act of pleading for one’s life was undoubtedly what had disappointed him the most. He looks back towards Huntress, though the mask he wore conceals his expression.

She returns it blankly, not caring for the man nor his searching gaze that often found its way to her. She had only one mission, and he would either assist or hinder it. If he hindered it, he would die. And if not? She would die. Life was much simpler now.

‘Simpler than those days where everything was grey’.

Her mind goes back to that fall, and the last sight she saw. She saw the horror on Jason’s face, and that haunted her. It still sent shivers up her spine. She wanted to rush back to him. Wipe the tears away, the ones she heard him shed before the last bit life drained from her body.

But something kept her away. A much more important vision.

Bruce and Harleen...standing back in horror themselves. Just as powerless.

‘They were supposed to protect me!’ she seethes. ‘If they had broken their moral code. If they’d just bent a little...madmen wouldn’t be free. Free to kill and slaughter as they want’.

When she returns to the here and now Deathstroke is gone, having abruptly turned and left the coliseum. Rose too was moving ahead, her head bowed in shame. Soon, it was only Barbara and Ras left, Shiva having finally released Bronze Tiger from his imprisonment and helped him limp off to the medical ward.

“One day Huntress...you will become my weapon. My tool for fixing this world. It is rapidly decaying and it was on the precipice of collapse” the centuries old man says. “But one city stood against it, and salvaged the day. At any other point in history this would be inspiring. Now however, it is inconvenient. This world must be rebuilt yet again”.

“I know what must be done master”.

“Of course you do” he reiterates. “Look at me. A prattling old man telling you your mission yet again. Huntress. Eyes always upon her target and her goal. I need not remind you. Ever. Though...I do worry” he admits.

“About what?”

“When the time comes” he says. “Will you be able to pull the trigger? Kill those you love dearest in this world?”

“Those I LOVED” she corrects, though it was a lie, one that Ras saw right through. “Hmm...we shall see. We still have many years before then. Now...come. It is time for dinner”.

She begins to make her way across the pilings, her eyes focused ahead as she feels with her feet and senses, those having been particularly heightened by her trip into the Lazarus pit.

‘Jason….’.

She wishes, above all else, that he was with her. But she contents herself with the fact that she would return to Gotham one day, and then? Jason would join her as he always had. They were best friends and more. They would protect each other. Be there for one another.

He loved her after all.

**_Wayne Manor_ **

“Master Bruce are you sure you don’t wish for me to come?” the butler asks for the eighth time that day while Dinah was busy making sure all the kids were buckles into the car. It was packed, top to bottom, with luggage and seating was already hard to come by. Somehow though, the superpowered nanny found a way.

“I’m sure Alfred” the man chuckles as Harley comes up behind him, carrying the last bag, or at least what he hoped was the last bag. She hucks it into the back and closes the door. “If you and mama come you wont have a vacation as you’ll only be mothering all over us. You stay here and enjoy having the house to yourselves. All sorts of things are happening in Gotham now, and we’ve left you enough money to do whatever you want!”

“The Queen of the Amazons wont have to pay for anything. What a ludicrous notion” Nubia says, standing beside Elise as she moves up to the car. “Artemis, Persephone?” Elise calls at the truck. “You’re in there correct?”

The two women were indeed packed in, and uncomfortable as they’d ever been. To blend in they were dressed as civilian women from man’s world, their mission being to protect the princess while she was away. The two struggle to try and get their word out that they were indeed packed on either side of the children in the second row, the third row being too filled with the others anyway. 

“Are you sure you don’t want some of them to ride with us?” Harleen asks, gesturing towards the porsche. “I mean…”.

“No, no” Vic says, moving up to get ready to assume his position in the driver’s seat. “You two are speed demons. Dinah and I have got the kids”.

“Master Bruce, are you still quite sure? I could be of assist…”.

“Alllllll...yes, we’re sure. Stay here please” the man says, having so much going on that it only occurs to him for a moment that Jason wasn’t there. He casts his eyes about and sees him soon enough, his eyes fixating on the lone figure that stands in front of the grave stones of the Wayne family plot.

Harleen notices too, and everyone goes silent, the boy always striking a very somber tone within them. He hadn’t recovered. Not yet. 

Bruce makes to go but Harley stops him, a sad smile on her face. “I’ll go get him puddin’”.

“I…”.

“Yeah, I got it”.

He gave in, but only because he knew that Jason still resented him for taking the suit away from him. He didn’t understand. Maybe he never would, but he’d done it because he loved him, and didn’t want to see him get hurt.

Harley though? He still talked to Harley sometimes.

She moves up behind him, making no secret of it and adding plenty of noise while she approaches the boy. “Sweetie...we’re getting ready to go”.

He doesn’t say anything and silence is all that greets her. “Sweetie?”

“I’m coming”.

Before anything else, he leans down and kisses the gravestone. “Bye Barbara. I’ll see you when we get back. I love you”.

He turns and practically marches by Harleen, not saying anything else. She wanted to stop him and take him into her arms, but she also knew that that wouldn’t be good long term for Jason. He had to come to them on his own terms, and all they could do was wait with open arms. She herself looks towards the stone too and smiles through her tears at the name inscribed. 

Barbara Gordon-Wayne.

“I wish you were coming with us sweetie. Hehe” she chuckles, covering her sadness. “First Wayne family vacation. Just know sweetie, mama and daddy will always love you okay?” 

She moves forward and kisses the stone as well, brushing her hand along the top. “I’ll bring you some sand back okay? I’ll pour it here so you can feel it. I know you would’ve loved the sand. A regular beach babe you would’ve been”.

She says it one more time, unable to help it. “I love you Barbara”.

As soon as the words leave her lips though, she is going back to the small caravan waiting to disembark, trying to deal with all the chaos that had broken out all over again due to the small party of Amazons seeing them off.

Barbara’s gravestone watches it all though, gazing sightlessly out over the grounds of Wayne Manor. It was a rather beautiful spot, and it gave a good view of the sunrise if one were to sit and watch it. They’d chosen it for that reason, needing to remind themselves that the sun always rose the next day, regardless of what they’d lost.

It always rose again.

As constant as the tide.


End file.
